U.S. patent application number 15/845728 was filed with the patent office on 2018-12-27 for methods and systems for detecting anomalies and forecasting optimizations to improve smart city or region infrastructure management using networks of autonomous vehicles.
The applicant listed for this patent is Veniam, Inc.. Invention is credited to Patricia Cristina Ramalho de Oliveira.
Application Number | 20180376305 15/845728 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 64692885 |
Filed Date | 2018-12-27 |
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00000.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00001.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00002.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00003.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00004.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00005.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00006.png)
![](/patent/app/20180376305/US20180376305A1-20181227-D00007.png)
United States Patent
Application |
20180376305 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ramalho de Oliveira; Patricia
Cristina |
December 27, 2018 |
METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DETECTING ANOMALIES AND FORECASTING
OPTIMIZATIONS TO IMPROVE SMART CITY OR REGION INFRASTRUCTURE
MANAGEMENT USING NETWORKS OF AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES
Abstract
Methods and systems are provided for detecting anomalies and
forecasting optimizations to improve smart city or region
infrastructure management using networks of autonomous vehicles. An
autonomous vehicle may receive initial information relating to
infrastructure utilized by a plurality of autonomous vehicles, and
may acquire, during operation in the infrastructure, real-time
information relating to the infrastructure and/or to other ones of
the plurality of autonomous vehicles. The acquired information may
be processed, and based on the processing of the acquired
information and the initial information, anomalies and/or problems
affecting the infrastructure and/or operation of the plurality of
autonomous vehicles in the infrastructure may be detected.
Inventors: |
Ramalho de Oliveira; Patricia
Cristina; (S.Felix da Marinha, PT) |
|
Applicant: |
Name |
City |
State |
Country |
Type |
Veniam, Inc. |
Mountain View |
CA |
US |
|
|
Family ID: |
64692885 |
Appl. No.: |
15/845728 |
Filed: |
December 18, 2017 |
Related U.S. Patent Documents
|
|
|
|
|
|
Application
Number |
Filing Date |
Patent Number |
|
|
62524089 |
Jun 23, 2017 |
|
|
|
Current U.S.
Class: |
1/1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G08G 1/096775 20130101;
G08G 1/0145 20130101; H04W 4/46 20180201; G08G 1/096783 20130101;
G05D 1/0088 20130101; H04L 67/12 20130101; G08G 1/0133 20130101;
G08G 1/0112 20130101; H04W 4/44 20180201; G08G 1/0129 20130101 |
International
Class: |
H04W 4/44 20060101
H04W004/44; H04L 29/08 20060101 H04L029/08; H04W 4/46 20060101
H04W004/46; G08G 1/0967 20060101 G08G001/0967 |
Claims
1. A method for infrastructure management using a plurality of
autonomous vehicles, the method comprising: receiving by at least
one of said plurality of autonomous vehicles, initial information
relating to infrastructure utilized by said plurality of autonomous
vehicles; acquiring by at least one of said plurality of autonomous
vehicles, during operation in said in infrastructure, real-time
information relating to said infrastructure and/or to other ones of
said plurality of autonomous vehicles; processing said acquired
information; and detecting based on said processing of said
acquired information and said initial information, anomalies and/or
problems affecting said infrastructure and/or operation of said
plurality of autonomous vehicles in said infrastructure.
2. The method of claim 1, comprising performing at least some of
said processing of said real-time information in said at least one
of said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
3. The method of claim 1, comprising offloading at least some of
said processing of said real-time information to a central entity
configured for managing said infrastructure and/or said plurality
of autonomous vehicles.
4. The method of claim 3, comprising receiving said initial
information from said central entity.
5. The method of claim 1, comprising providing said acquired
information and/or information relating to said detected anomalies
and/or problems to a central entity configured for managing said
infrastructure and/or said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
6. The method of claim 5, comprising receiving from said central
entity, in response to said providing of said acquired information
and/or information relating to said detected anomalies and/or
problems, updated information related to said infrastructure.
7. The method of claim 1, comprising providing information relating
to said detected anomalies and/or problems directly to one or more
other ones of said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
8. The method of claim 7, comprising selecting said information
provided directly to one or more other ones of said plurality of
autonomous vehicles based on determination that said information
requires quick or prompt broadcast.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein said initial information
comprises general context information that pertains to general use
and/or operation in said infrastructure.
10. The method of claim 8, wherein said general context information
comprises information relating to one or more of: location of
access points (APs) within said infrastructure; availability of
access points (APs) within said infrastructure; number of nearby
ones of said plurality of autonomous vehicles; location of said
nearby ones of said plurality of autonomous vehicles; destination
and/or route of each of nearby ones of said plurality of autonomous
vehicles; priority list, for possible types of information to
broadcast; type of anomalies or problems that are to be detected;
and detection related parameters for each type of anomaly or
problem.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein said initial information
comprises transportation-related context information that pertains
to management of said infrastructure and/or to operation of said at
least one of said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
12. The method of claim 10, wherein said transportation-related
context information comprises information relating to one or more
of: route of said at least one of said plurality of autonomous
vehicles; a destination of at least one of said plurality of
autonomous vehicles; a map of a region in which said at least one
of said plurality of autonomous vehicles travels; infrastructure
elements in said region; road reports relating to current
conditions affecting driving on roads on which said at least one of
said plurality of autonomous vehicles travel; emergency related
information affecting operation of said at least one of said
plurality of autonomous vehicles; and fuel and/or charge
levels.
13. A system configured for supporting infrastructure management in
a vehicle communication network comprising a plurality of
autonomous vehicles, wherein said system is implemented in one of
said plurality of autonomous vehicles, said system comprising: one
or more communication circuits configured for communication of
signals for transmission and reception of data; one or more storage
circuits configured for storing of instructions and data; and at
least one processing circuit; wherein: said one or more
communication circuits are operable to receive initial information
relating to infrastructure utilized by said plurality of autonomous
vehicles; said one or more communication circuits are operable to
obtain, during operation in said in infrastructure, real-time
information relating to said infrastructure and/or to other ones of
said plurality of autonomous vehicles; said at least one processing
circuit is operable to process at least some of said acquired
information; and said at least one processing circuit is operable
to detect based on said processing of said acquired information and
said initial information, anomalies and/or problems affecting said
infrastructure and/or operation of said plurality of autonomous
vehicles in said infrastructure.
14. The system of claim 13, wherein said at least one processing
circuit is operable to offload at least some of said processing of
said real-time information to a central entity configured for
managing said infrastructure and/or said plurality of autonomous
vehicles.
15. The system of claim 14, wherein said one or more communication
circuits are operable to receive said initial information from said
central entity.
16. The system of claim 13, wherein said one or more communication
circuits are operable to communicate at least some of said acquired
information and/or information relating to said detected anomalies
and/or problems to a central entity configured for managing said
infrastructure and/or said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
17. The system of claim 16, wherein said one or more communication
circuits are operable to receive from said central entity, in
response to said providing of said acquired information and/or
information relating to said detected anomalies and/or problems,
updated information related to said infrastructure.
18. The system of claim 13, wherein said one or more communication
circuits are operable to communicate information relating to said
detected anomalies and/or problems directly to one or more other
ones of said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
19. The system of claim 18, wherein said at least one processing
circuit is operable to select said information provided directly to
one or more other ones of said plurality of autonomous vehicles
based on determination that said information requires quick or
prompt broadcast.
20. The system of claim 13, wherein said initial information
comprises general context information that pertains to general use
and/or operation in said infrastructure.
21. The system of claim 13, wherein said initial information
comprises transportation-related context information that pertains
to management of said infrastructure and/or to operation of said at
least one of said plurality of autonomous vehicles.
Description
CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] This patent application makes reference to, claims priority
to and claims benefit from U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser.
No. 62/524,089, filed on Jun. 23, 2017. The above identified
application is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its
entirety.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS/INCORPORATION BY
REFERENCE
[0002] This patent application is related to:
[0003] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/133,756, filed on Apr.
20, 2016, and entitled "Communication Network of Moving
Things;"
[0004] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/132,867, filed on Apr.
19, 2016, and entitled "Integrated Communication Network for a
Network of Moving Things;"
[0005] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/138,370, filed on Apr.
26, 2016, and titled, "Systems and Methods for Remote Configuration
Update and Distribution in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0006] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/157,887, filed on May
18, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Remote Software
Update and Distribution in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0007] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/228,613, filed on Aug.
4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Environmental
Management in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0008] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/213,269, filed on Jul.
18, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Collecting Sensor
Data in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0009] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/215,905, filed on Aug.
4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Environmental
Management in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0010] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/245,992, filed on Aug.
24, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Shipping Management
in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0011] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/337,856, filed on Oct.
28, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Optimizing Data
Gathering in a .sup.-Network of Moving Things;"
[0012] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/351,811, filed on Nov.
15, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods to Extrapolate
High-Value Data from a Network of Moving Things;"
[0013] U.S. Patent Application 15/353,966, filed on Nov. 17, 2016,
and entitled "Systems and Methods for Delay Tolerant Networking in
a Network of Moving Things, for Example Including a Network of
Autonomous Vehicles;"
[0014] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/414,978, filed on Jan.
25, 2017, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Digital
Advertising Campaigns in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0015] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/451,696, filed on Mar.
7, 2017, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Mobility in
a Network of Moving Things;"
[0016] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/428,085, filed on Feb.
8, 2017, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Vehicle OBD
Data in a Network of Moving Things, for Example including
Autonomous Vehicle Data;"
[0017] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/336,891,
filed on May 16, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Vehicular Positioning Based on Message Round-Trip Times in a
Network of Moving Things;"
[0018] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/350,814,
filed on Jun. 16, 2016, and entitled "System and Methods for
Managing Contains in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0019] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/360,592,
filed on Jul. 11, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Vehicular Positioning Based on Wireless Fingerprinting Data in a
Network of Moving Things;"
[0020] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/376,937,
filed on Aug. 19, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods to
Improve Multimedia Content Distribution in a Network of Moving
Things;"
[0021] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/376,955,
filed on Aug. 19, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods tor
Reliable Software Update in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0022] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/377,350,
filed on Aug. 19, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Flexible Software Update in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0023] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/378,269,
filed on Aug. 23, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Flexible Software Update in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0024] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/415,196,
tiled on Oct. 31, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Method for
Achieving Action Consensus Among a Set of Nodes in a Network of
Moving Things;"
[0025] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/415,268,
filed on Oct. 31, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods to Deploy
and Control a Node in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0026] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/417,705,
filed on Nov. 4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for the
User-Centric Calculation of the Service Quality of a Transportation
Fleet in a Network of Moving Things;"
[0027] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/429,410,
filed on December 2, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Improving Content Distribution for Fleets of Vehicles, including
for Example Autonomous Vehicles, By Using Smart Supply Stations;"
and
[0028] U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62,449,394,
filed on Jan. 23, 2017, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Utilizing Mobile Access Points as Fixed Access Points in a Network
of Moving Things, for Example Including Autonomous Vehicles."
[0029] Each of the above identified applications is hereby
incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all
purposes.
BACKGROUND
[0030] Current communication networks are unable to adequately
support communication environments involving mobile and static
nodes. As a non-limiting example, current communication networks
are unable to adequately support communication among and with
autonomous vehicles of a network of autonomous vehicles.
[0031] Limitations and disadvantages of conventional methods and
systems will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through
comparison of such approaches with some aspects of the present
methods and systems set forth in the remainder of this disclosure
with reference to the drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0032] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a communication network, in
accordance with various aspects of this disclosure.
[0033] FIG. 2 shows a block diagram of a communication network, in
accordance with various aspects of this disclosure.
[0034] FIG. 3 shows a diagram of a metropolitan area network, in
accordance with various aspects of this disclosure.
[0035] FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of a communication network, in
accordance with various aspects of this disclosure.
[0036] FIG. 5 is a block diagram that illustrates an example
architecture of a system that may reside in an autonomous (AV)
operating in a network of moving things, in accordance with various
aspects of the present disclosure.
[0037] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating how the functional
blocks of an AV system interact with one another during an example
flow of information involving an AV system of an autonomous
vehicle, a neighbor autonomous vehicle, a fixed access point, and a
Cloud accessible via the Internet, in accordance with various
aspects of the present disclosure.
[0038] FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example use of an
autonomous vehicle (AV) based network for detecting anomalies and
forecasting optimizations to improve smart city infrastructure
management, in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure.
SUMMARY
[0039] Various aspects of this disclosure provide systems and
methods for supporting a network of autonomous vehicles. As a
non-limiting example, various aspects of this disclosure provide
systems and methods for supporting a dynamically configurable
network of autonomous vehicles comprising a complex array of both
static and moving communication nodes (e.g., the Internet of moving
things, autonomous vehicle networks, etc.). For example, a network
of autonomous vehicles implemented in accordance with various
aspects of the present disclosure may operate in one of a plurality
of modalities comprising various fixed nodes, mobile nodes, and/or
a combination thereof, which are selectable to achieve any of a
variety of system goals. In various example implementations in
accordance with the present disclosure, autonomous vehicles may be
utilized in detecting anomalies and forecasting optimizations to
improve smart city or region infrastructure management.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF VARIOUS ASPECTS OF the DISCLOSURE
[0040] As utilized herein the terms "circuits" and "circuitry"
refer to physical electronic components (i.e., hardware) and any
software and/or firmware ("code") that may configure the hardware,
be executed by the hardware, and or otherwise be associated with
the hardware. As used herein, for example, a particular processor
and memory (e.g., a volatile or non-volatile memory device, a
general computer-readable medium, etc.) may comprise a first
"circuit" when executing a first one or more lines of code and may
comprise a second "circuit" when executing a second one or more
lines of code. Additionally, a circuit may comprise analog and/or
digital circuitry. Such circuitry may, for example, operate on
analog and/or digital signals. It should be understood that a
circuit may be in a single device or chip, on a single motherboard,
in a single chassis, in a plurality of enclosures at a single
geographical location, in a plurality of enclosures distributed
over a plurality of geographical locations, etc. Similarly, the
term "module" may, for example, refer to a physical electronic
components (i.e., hardware) and any software and/or firmware
("code") that may configure the hardware, he executed by the
hardware, and or otherwise be associated with the hardware.
[0041] As utilized herein, circuitry is "operable" to perform a
function whenever the circuitry comprises the necessary hardware
and code (if any is necessary) to perform the function, regardless
of whether performance of the function is disabled, or not enabled
(e.g., by a user-configurable setting, factory setting or trim,
etc.).
[0042] As utilized herein, "and/or" means any one or more of the
items in the list joined by "and/or". As an example, "x and/or y"
means any element of the three-element set {(x), (y), (x, y)}. That
is, "x and/or y" means "one or both of x and y." As another
example, "x, y, and/or z" means any element of the seven-element
set {(x), (y), (z), (x, y), (x, z), (y, z), (x, y, z)}. That is,
"x, y, and/or z" means "one or more of x, y, and z." As utilized
herein, the terms "e.g.," and "for example," "exemplary," and the
like set off lists of one or more non-limiting examples, instances,
or illustrations.
[0043] The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing
particular examples only and is not intended to be limiting of the
disclosure. As used herein, the singular forms are intended to
include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly
indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms
"comprises," "includes," "comprising," "including," "has," "have,"
"having," and the like when used in this specification, specify the
presence of stated features, integers, steps, operations, elements,
and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of
one or more other features, integers, steps, operations, elements,
components, and/or groups thereof.
[0044] It will be understood that, although the terms first,
second, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these
elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only
used to distinguish one element from another element. Thus, for
example, a first element, a first component or a first section
discussed below could be termed a second element, a second
component or a second section without departing from the teachings
of the present disclosure. Similarly, various spatial terms, such
as "upper," "lower," "side," and the like, may be used in
distinguishing one element from another element in a relative
manner. It should be understood, however, that components may be
oriented in different manners, for example an electronic device may
be turned sideways so that its "top" surface is facing horizontally
and its "side" surface is facing vertically, without departing from
the teachings of the present disclosure.
[0045] With the proliferation of the mobile and/or static things
(e.g., devices, machines, people, etc.) and logistics for such
things to become connected to each other (e.g., in the contexts of
smart logistics, transportation, environmental sensing, etc.), a
platform that is for example always-on, robust, scalable and secure
that is capable of providing connectivity, services and Internet
access to such things (or objects), anywhere and anytime is
desirable. Efficient power utilization within the various
components of such system is also desirable.
[0046] Accordingly, various aspects of the present disclosure
provide a fully-operable, always-on, responsive, robust, scalable,
secure platform/system/architecture to provide connectivity,
services and Internet access to all mobile things and/or static
things (e.g., devices, machines, people, access points, end user
devices, sensors, etc. anywhere and anytime, while operating in an
energy-efficient manner.
[0047] Various aspects of the present disclosure provide a platform
that is flexibly configurable and adaptable to the various
requirements, features, and needs of different environments, where
each environment may be characterized by a respective level of
mobility and density of mobile and/or static things, and the number
and/or types of access to those things, Characteristics of various
environments may, for example, include high mobility of nodes
(e.g., causing contacts or connections to be volatile), high number
of neighbors, high number of connected mobile users, mobile access
points, availability of multiple networks and technologies (e.g.,
sometimes within a same area), etc. For example, the mode of
operation of the platform may be flexibly adapted from environment
to environment, based on each environment's respective requirements
and needs, which may be different from other environments.
Additionally for example, the platform may be flexibly optimized
(e.g., at design/installation time and/or in real-time) for
different purposes (e.g., to reduce the latency, increase
throughput, reduce power consumption, load balance, increase
reliability, make more robust with regard to failures or other
disturbances, etc.), for example based on the content, service or
data that the platform provides or handles within a particular
environment.
[0048] Various example implementations of a platform, in accordance
with various aspects of the present disclosure, are capable of
connecting different subsystems, even when various other subsystems
that may normally be utilized are unavailable. For example, the
platform may comprise various built-in redundancies and
fail-recovery mechanisms. For example, the platform may comprise a
self-healing capability, self-configuration capability,
self-adaptation capability, etc. The protocols and functions of the
platform may, for example, be prepared to be autonomously and
smoothly configured and adapted to the requirements and features of
different environments characterized by different levels of
mobility and density of things (or objects), the number/types of
access to those things. For example, various aspects of the
platform may gather context parameters that can influence any or
all decisions. Such parameters may, for example, be derived
locally, gathered from a neighborhood, Fixed APs, the Cloud, etc.
Various aspects of the platform may also, for example, ask for
historical information to feed any of the decisions, where such
information can be derived from historical data, from surveys, from
simulators, etc. Various aspects of the platform may additionally,
for example, probe or monitor decisions made throughout the
network, for example to evaluate the network and/or the decisions
themselves in real-time. Various aspects of the platform may
further, for example, enforce the decisions in the network (e.g.,
after evaluating the probing results). Various aspects of the
platform may, for example, establish thresholds to avoid any
decision that is to be constantly or repeatedly performed without
any significant advantage (e.g., technology change, certificate
change, IP change, etc.). Various aspects of the platform may also,
for example, learn locally (e.g., with the decisions performed) and
dynamically update the decisions.
[0049] In addition to (or instead of) failure robustness, a
platform may utilize multiple connections (or pathways) that exist
between distinct sub-systems or elements within the same
sub-system, to increase the robustness and/or load-balancing of the
system.
[0050] The following discussion will present examples of the
functionality performed by various example subsystems of the
communication network. It should be understood that the example
functionality discussed herein need not be performed by the
particular example subsystem or by a single subsystem. For example,
the subsystems present herein may interact with each other, and
data or control services may be deployed either in a centralized
way, or having their functionalities distributed among the
different subsystems, for example leveraging the cooperation
between the elements of each subsystem.
[0051] Various aspects of the present disclosure provide a
communication network (e.g., a city-wide vehicular network, a
shipping port-sized vehicular network, a campus-wide vehicular
network, etc.) that utilizes vehicles (e.g., automobiles, buses,
trucks, boats, forklifts, human-operated vehicles, autonomous
and/or remote controlled vehicles, etc.) as Wi-Fi hotspots. Note
that Wi-Fi is generally used throughout this discussion as an
example, but the scope of various aspects of this disclosure is not
limited thereto. For example, other wireless LAN technologies, PAN
technologies, MAN technologies, etc., may be utilized. Such
utilization may, for example, provide cost-effective ways to gather
substantial amounts of urban data, and provide for the efficient
offloading of traffic from congested cellular networks (or other
networks). In controlled areas (e.g., ports, harbors, etc.) with
many vehicles, a communication network in accordance with various
aspects of this disclosure may expand the wireless coverage of
existing enterprise Wi-Fi networks, for example providing for
real-time communication with vehicle drivers (e.g., human,
computer-controlled, etc.) and other mobile employees without the
need for SIM cards or cellular (or other network) data plans.
[0052] In accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure, an affordable multi-network Mobile Access Point (or
Mobile AP or MAP) is presented. Note that the Mobile AP may also be
referred to herein as an on-board unit (OBU), etc. The Mobile AP
may, for example, comprise a plurality of networking interfaces
(e.g., Wi-Fi, 802.11p, 4G, Bluetooth, UWB, etc.). The Mobile AP
may, for example, be readily installed in or on private and/or
public vehicles (e.g., individual user vehicles, vehicles of
private fleets, vehicles of public fleets, autonomous vehicles,
etc.). The Mobile AP may, for example, be installed in
transportation fleets, waste management fleets, law enforcement
fleets, emergency services, road maintenance fleets, taxi fleets,
aircraft fleets, etc. The Mobile AP may, for example, be installed
in or on a vehicle or other structure with free mobility or
relatively limited mobility. The Mobile AP may also, for example,
be carried by a person or service animal, mounted to a bicycle,
mounted to a moving machine in general, mounted to a container,
etc.
[0053] The Mobile APs may, for example, operate to connect passing
vehicles to the wired infrastructure of one or more network
providers, telecom operators, etc. In accordance with the
architecture, hardware, and software functionality discussed
herein, vehicles and fleets can be connected not just to the
cellular networks (or other wide area or metropolitan area
networks, etc.) and existing Wi-Fi hotspots spread over a city or a
controlled space, but also to other vehicles (e.g., utilizing
multi-hop communications to a wired infrastructure, single or
multi-hop peer-to-peer vehicle communication, etc.). The vehicles
and/or fleets may, for example, form an overall mesh of
communication links, for example including the Mobile APs and also
Fixed Access Points (or Fixed APs or FAPs) connected to the wired
or tethered infrastructure (e.g., a local infrastructure, etc.).
Note that Fixed APs may also be referred to herein as Road Side
Units (RSUs).
[0054] In an example implementation, the Mobile APs may communicate
with the Fixed APs utilizing a relatively long-range protocol
(e.g., 802.11p, etc.), and the Fixed APs may, in turn, be hard
wired to the wired infrastructure (e.g., via cable, tethered
optical link, etc.). Note that Fixed APs may also, or
alternatively, be coupled to the infrastructure via wireless link
(e.g., 802.11p, etc.). Additionally, clients or user devices may
communicate with the Mobile APs using one or more relatively
short-range protocols (e.g., Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, UWB, etc.). The
Mobile APs, for example having a longer effective wireless
communication range than typical Wi-Fi access points or other
wireless LAN/PAN access points (e.g., at least for links such as
those based on 802.11p, etc.), are capable of substantially greater
coverage areas than typical Wi-Fi or other wireless LAN/PAN access
points, and thus fewer Mobile APs are necessary to provide blanket
coverage over a geographical area.
[0055] The Mobile AP may, for example, comprise a robust vehicular
networking module (e.g., a connection manager) which builds on
long-range communication protocol capability (e.g., 802.11p, etc.).
For example, in addition to comprising 802.11p (or other long-range
protocol) capability to communicate with Fixed APs, vehicles, and
other nodes in the network, the Mobile AP may comprise a network
interface (e.g., 802.11a/b/g/n, 802.11ac, 802.11af, any combination
thereof, etc.) to provide wireless local area network (WLAN)
connectivity to end user devices, sensors, fixed Wi-Fi access
points, etc. For example, the Mobile AP may operate to provide
in-vehicle Wi-Fi Internet access to users in and/or around the
vehicle (e.g., a bus, train car, taxi cab, public works vehicle,
etc.). The Mobile AP may further comprise one or more wireless
backbone communication interfaces (e.g., cellular network
interfaces, etc.). Though in various example scenarios, a cellular
network interface (or other wireless backbone communication
interface) might not be the preferred interface for various reasons
(e.g., cost, power, bandwidth, etc.), the Mobile AP may utilize the
cellular network interface to provide connectivity in geographical
areas that are not presently supported by a Fixed AP, may utilize
the cellular network interface to provide a fail-over communication
link, may utilize the cellular network interface for emergency
communications, may utilize the cellular network interface to
subscribe to local infrastructure access, etc. The Mobile AP may
also utilize the cellular network interface to allow the deployment
of solutions that are dependent on the cellular network
operators.
[0056] A Mobile AP, in accordance with various aspects of the
present disclosure, may for example comprise a smart connection
manager that can select the best available wireless link(s) (e.g.,
Wi-Fi, 802.11p, cellular, vehicle mesh, etc.) with which to access
the Internet. The Mobile AP may also, for example, provide
geo-location capabilities (e.g., GPS, etc.), motion detection
sensors to determine if the vehicle is in motion, and a power
control subsystem (e.g., to ensure that the Mobile AP does not
deplete the vehicle battery, etc.). The Mobile AP may, for example,
comprise any or all of the sensors environmental sensors, etc.)
discussed herein.
[0057] The Mobile AP may, for example, comprise a connection and/or
routing manager that operates to perform routing of communications
in a vehicle-to-vehicle/vehicle-to-infrastructure multi-hop
communication, A mobility manager (or controller, MC) may, for
example, ensure that communication sessions persist over one or
more handoff(s) (also referred to herein as a "handover" or
"handovers") (e.g., between different Mobile APs, Fixed APs, base
stations, hot spots, etc.), among different technologies (e.g.,
802.11p, cellular, Wi-Fi, satellite, etc.), among different MCs
(e.g., in a fail-over scenario, load redistribution scenario,
etc.), across different interfaces (or ports), etc. Note that the
MC may also be referred to herein as a Local Mobility Anchor (LMA),
a Network Controller, etc. Note that the MC, or a plurality
thereof, may for example be implemented as part of the backbone,
but may also, or alternatively, be implemented as part of any of a
variety of components or combinations thereof. For example, the MC
may be implemented in a Fixed AP (or distributed system thereof),
as part of a Mobile AP (or a distributed system thereof), etc.
[0058] For example, an example implementation may operate to turn
each vehicle (e.g., both public and private taxis, buses, trucks,
autonomous vehicles, etc.) into a Mobile AP (e.g., a mobile Wi-Fi
hotspot), offering Internet access to employees, passengers and
mobile users travelling in the city, waiting in bus stops, sitting
in parks, etc. Moreover, through an example vehicular mesh network
formed between vehicles and/or fleets of vehicles, an
implementation may be operable to offload cellular traffic through
the mobile Wi-Fi hotspots and/or Fixed APs (e.g., 802.11p-based
APs) spread over the city and connected to the wired infrastructure
of public or private telecom operators in strategic places, while
ensuring the widest possible coverage at the lowest possible
cost.
[0059] An example implementation (e.g., of a communication network
and/or components thereof) may, for example, be operable as a
massive urban scanner that gathers large amounts of data (e.g.,
continuously) on-the-move, actionable or not, generated by a myriad
of sources spanning from the in-vehicle sensors or On Board
Diagnostic System port (e.g., OBD2, etc.), interface with an
autonomous vehicle driving system, external Wi-Fi/Bluetooth-enabled
sensing units spread over the city, devices of vehicles' drivers
and passengers (e.g., information characterizing such devices
and/or passengers, etc.), positioning system devices (e.g.,
position information, velocity information, trajectory information,
travel history information, etc.), etc.
[0060] In an example scenario in which public buses are moving
along city routes and/or taxis are performing their private
transportation services, the Mobile AP is able to collect large
quantities of real-time data from the positioning systems (e.g.,
GPS, etc.), from accelerometer modules, etc. The Mobile AP may
then, for example, communicate such data (e.g., raw data, processed
data, etc.) to the Cloud, where the data may be processed, reported
and viewed, for example to support such public or private bus
and/or taxi operations, for example supporting efficient remote
monitoring and scheduling of buses and taxis, respectively.
[0061] A Mobile AP may, for example, be operable to communicate
with any of a variety of Wi-Fi-enabled sensor devices equipped with
a heterogeneous collection of environmental sensors. Such sensors
may, for example, comprise noise sensors (microphones, etc.), gas
sensors (e.g., sensing CO, NO.sub.2, O.sub.3, volatile organic
compounds (or VOCs), CO.sub.2, etc.), smoke sensors, pollution
sensors, meteorological sensors (e.g., sensing temperature,
humidity, luminosity, particles, solar radiation, wind speed (e.g.,
anemometer), wind direction, rain (e.g., a pluviometer), optical
scanners, biometric scanners, cameras, microphones, etc.). Such
sensors may also comprise sensors associated with users (e.g.,
vehicle operators or passengers, passersby, etc.) and/or their
personal devices (e.g., smart phones or watches, biometrics
sensors, wearable sensors, implanted sensors, etc.). Such sensors
may, for example, comprise sensors and/or systems associated with
on-board diagnostic (OBD) units for vehicles, autonomous vehicle
driving systems, etc. Such sensors may, for example, comprise
positioning sensors (e.g., GPS sensors, Galileo sensors, GLONASS
sensors, etc.). Note that such positioning sensors may be part of a
vehicle's operational system (e.g., a local human-controlled
vehicle, an autonomous vehicle, a remote human-controlled vehicle,
etc.) Such sensors may, for example, comprise container sensors
(e.g., garbage can sensors, shipping container sensors, container
environmental sensors, container tracking sensors, etc.).
[0062] Once a vehicle enters the vicinity of such a sensor device,
a wireless link may be established, so that the vehicle (or Mobile
AP or OBU thereof) can collect sensor data from the sensor device
and upload the collected data to a database in the Cloud. The
appropriate action can then be taken. In an example waste
management implementation, several waste management (or collection)
trucks may be equipped with Mobile APs that are able to
periodically communicate with sensors installed on containers in
order to gather information about waste level, time passed since
last collection, etc. Such information may then sent to the Cloud
(e.g., to a waste management application coupled to the Internet,
etc.) through the vehicular mesh network, in order to improve the
scheduling and/or routing of waste management trucks. Note that
various sensors may always be in range of the Mobile AP (e.g.,
vehicle-mounted sensors). Note that the sensor may also (or
alternatively) be mobile (e.g., a sensor mounted to another vehicle
passing by a Mobile AP or Fixed AP, a drone-mounted sensor, a
pedestrian-mounted sensor, etc.).
[0063] For example, in an example port and/or harbor
implementation, by gathering real-time information on the position,
speed, fuel consumption and CO.sub.2 emissions of the vehicles, the
communication network allows a port operator to improve the
coordination of the ship loading processes and increase the
throughput of the harbor. Also for example, the communication
network enables remote monitoring of drivers' behaviors, behaviors
of autonomous vehicles and/or control systems thereof, trucks'
positions and engines' status, and then be able to provide
real-time notifications to drivers (e.g., to turn on/off the
engine, follow the right route inside the harbor, take a break,
etc.), for example human drivers and/or automated vehicle driving
systems, thus reducing the number and duration of the harbor
services and trips. Harbor authorities may, for example, quickly
detect malfunctioning trucks and abnormal trucks' circulation, thus
avoiding accidents in order to increase harbor efficiency,
security, and safety. Additionally, the vehicles can also connect
to Wi-Fi access points from harbor local operators, and provide
Wi-Fi Internet access to vehicles' occupants and surrounding harbor
employees, for example allowing pilots to save time by filing
reports via the Internet while still on the water.
[0064] An example method for infrastructure management using a
plurality of autonomous vehicles in accordance with the present
disclosure may comprise receiving by at least one of the plurality
of autonomous vehicles initial information relating to
infrastructure utilized by the plurality of autonomous vehicles;
acquiring by at least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles,
during operation in the infrastructure, real-time information
relating to the infrastructure and/or to other ones of the
plurality of autonomous vehicles; processing the acquired
information; and detecting based on the processing of the acquired
information and the initial information, anomalies and/or problems
affecting the infrastructure and/or operation of the plurality of
autonomous vehicles in the infrastructure.
[0065] In an example implementation, at least sonic of the
processing of the real-time information may be performed in the at
least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles.
[0066] In an example implementation, at least some of the
processing of the real-time information may be offloaded to a
central entity configured for managing the infrastructure and/or
the plurality of autonomous vehicles.
[0067] In an example implementation, the initial information may be
received from the central entity.
[0068] In an example implementation, the acquired information
and/or information relating to the detected anomalies and/or
problems may be provided to the central entity configured for
managing the infrastructure and/or the plurality of autonomous
vehicles.
[0069] In an example implementation, updated information related to
the infrastructure may be received from the central entity, in
response to the providing of the acquired information and/or
information relating to the detected anomalies and/or problems.
[0070] In an example implementation, information relating to the
detected anomalies and/or problems may be provided or communicated
directly to one or more other ones of the plurality of autonomous
vehicles.
[0071] In an example implementation, the information provided
directly to one or more other ones of the plurality of autonomous
vehicles may be selected based on determination that the
information requires quick or prompt broadcast.
[0072] In an example implementation, the initial information may
comprise general context information that pertains to general use
and/or operation in the infrastructure. The general context
information may comprise, for example, information relating to one
or more of: location of access points (APs) within the
infrastructure; availability of access points (APs) within the
infrastructure; number of nearby ones of the plurality of
autonomous vehicles; location of the nearby ones of the plurality
of autonomous vehicles; destination and/or route of each of nearby
ones of the plurality of autonomous vehicles; priority list of
possible types of information; type of anomalies or problems that
are to be detected; and detection related parameters for each type
of anomaly or problem.
[0073] In an example implementation, the initial information may
comprise transportation-related context information that pertains
to management of the infrastructure and/or to operation of the at
least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles. The
transportation-related context information may comprise, for
example, information relating to one or more of: route of the at
least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles; a destination of
at least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles; a map of a
region in which the at least one of the plurality of autonomous
vehicles travels; infrastructure elements in the region; road
reports relating to current conditions affecting driving on roads
on which the at least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles
travel; emergency related information affecting operation of the at
least one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles; and fuel and/or
charge levels.
[0074] In an example implementation, The AV may determine types of
information to broadcast, such as when anomalies are detected. In
this regard, the AV may determine based on a priority list of
possible types of information provided by the Cloud (e.g., as part
of the initial information) how to prioritize the detected
anomalies to be broadcasted. In some implementations, such priority
list(s) of possible types of information may be updated by the
Cloud, such as based on information provided by AVs. The updated
lists may then be communicated to the AVs, for use in handling
subsequently detected anomalies.
[0075] An example system configured for supporting infrastructure
management in a vehicle communication network comprising a
plurality of autonomous vehicles, in accordance with the present
disclosure may comprise one or more communication circuits
configured for communication of signals for transmission and
reception of data; one or more storage circuits configured for
storing of instructions and data; and at least one processing
circuit; with the system being implemented in one of the plurality
of autonomous vehicles. The one or more communication circuits may
be operable to receive initial information relating to
infrastructure utilized by the plurality of autonomous vehicles;
and obtain, during operation in the infrastructure, real-time
information relating to the infrastructure and/or to other ones of
the plurality of autonomous vehicles. The at least one processing
circuit may be operable to process at least some of the acquired
information; and detect based on the processing of the acquired
information and the initial information, anomalies and/or problems
affecting the infrastructure and/or operation of the plurality of
autonomous vehicles in the infrastructure.
[0076] In an example implementation, the at least one processing
circuit may be operable to offload at least some of the processing
of the real-time information to a central entity configured for
managing the infrastructure and/or the plurality of autonomous
vehicles.
[0077] In an example implementation, the one or more communication
circuits may be operable to receive the initial information from
the central entity.
[0078] In an example implementation, the one or more communication
circuits may be operable to communicate at least some of the
acquired information and/or information relating to the detected
anomalies and/or problems to a central entity configured for
managing the infrastructure and/or the plurality of autonomous
vehicles.
[0079] In an example implementation, the one or more communication
circuits may be operable to receive from the central entity, in
response to the providing of the acquired information and/or
information relating to the detected anomalies and/or problems,
updated information related to the infrastructure.
[0080] In an example implementation, the one or more communication
circuits may be operable to communicate information relating to the
detected anomalies and/or problems directly to one or more other
ones of the plurality of autonomous vehicles.
[0081] In an example implementation, the at least one processing
circuit may be operable to select the information provided directly
to one or more other ones of the plurality of autonomous vehicles
based on determination that the information requires quick or
prompt broadcast.
[0082] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a communication network 100,
in accordance with various aspects of this disclosure. Any or all
of the functionality discussed herein may be performed by any or
all of the example components of the example network 100. Also, the
example network 100 may, for example, share any or all
characteristics with the other example methods, systems, networks
and/or network components 200, 300, 400, 500, and 600, discussed
herein.
[0083] The example network 100, for example, comprises a Cloud that
may, for example comprise any of a variety of network level
components. The Cloud may, for example, comprise any of a variety
of server systems executing applications that monitor and/or
control components of the network 100. Such applications may also,
for example, manage the collection of information from any of a
large array of networked information sources, many examples of
which are discussed herein. The Cloud (or a portion thereof) may
also be referred to, at times, as an API. For example, Cloud (or a
portion thereof) may provide one or more application programming
interfaces (APIs) which other devices may use for
communicating/interacting with the Cloud.
[0084] An example component of the Cloud may, for example, manage
interoperability with various multi-Cloud systems and
architectures. Another example component (e.g., a Cloud service
component) may, for example, provide various Cloud services (e.g.,
captive portal services, authentication, authorization, and
accounting (AAA) services, API Gateway services, etc.). An
additional example component. (e.g., a DevCenter component) may,
for example, provide network monitoring and/or management
functionality, manage the implementation of software updates, etc.
A further example component of the Cloud may manage data storage,
data analytics, data access, etc. A still further example component
of the Cloud may include any of a variety of third-partly
applications and services.
[0085] The Cloud may, for example, be coupled to the Backbone/Core
Infrastructure of the example network 100 via the Internet (e.g.,
utilizing one or more Internet Service Providers). Though the
Internet is provided by example, it should be understood that scope
of the present disclosure is not limited thereto.
[0086] The Backbone/Core may, for example, comprise any one or more
different communication infrastructure components. For example, one
or more providers may provide backbone networks or various
components thereof. As shown in the example network 100 illustrated
in FIG. 1, a Backbone provider may provide wireline access (e.g.,
PSTN, fiber, cable, etc.). Also for example, a Backbone provider
may provide wireless access (e.g., Microwave, LTE/Cellular, 5G/TV
Spectrum, etc.).
[0087] The Backbone/Core may also, for example, comprise one or
more Local Infrastructure Providers. The Backbone/Core may also,
for example, comprise a private infrastructure (e.g., run by the
network 100 implementer, owner, etc.). The Backbone/Core may, for
example, provide any of a variety of Backbone Services e.g., AAA,
Mobility, Monitoring, Addressing, Routing, Content services,
Gateway Control services, etc.).
[0088] The Backbone/Core Infrastructure may, for example, support
different modes of operation (e.g., L2 in port implementations, L3
in on-land public transportation implementations, utilizing any one
or more of a plurality of different layers of digital IP
networking, any combinations thereof, equivalents thereof, etc.) or
addressing pools. The Backbone/Core may also for example, he
agnostic to the Cloud provider(s) and/or Internet Service
Provider(s). Additionally for example, the Backbone/Core may be
agnostic to requests coming from any or all subsystems or notes of
the network 100. The Backbone/Core Infrastructure may, for example,
comprise the ability to utilize and/or interface with different
data storage/processing systems (e.g., MongoDB, MySql, Redis,
etc.).
[0089] The example network 100 may also, for example, comprise a
Fixed Hotspot Access Network. Various example characteristics of
such a Fixed Hotspot Access Network 200 are shown at FIG. 2. The
example network 200 may, for example, share any or all
characteristics with the other example methods, systems, networks
and/or network components 100, 300, 400, 500, and 600, discussed
herein.
[0090] In the example network 200, the Fixed APs (e.g., the
proprietary APs, the public third party APs, the private third
party APs, etc.) may be directly connected to the local
infrastructure provider and/or to the wireline/wireless backbone.
Also for example, the example network 200 may comprise a mesh
between the various APs via wireless technologies. Note, however,
that various wired technologies may also be utilized depending on
the implementation. As shown, different fixed hotspot access
networks can be connected to a same backbone provider, but may also
be connected to different respective backbone providers. In an
example implementation utilizing wireless technology for backbone
access, such an implementation may be relatively fault tolerant.
For example, a Fixed AP may utilize wireless communications to the
backbone network (e.g., cellular, 3G, LTE, other wide or
metropolitan area networks, etc.) if the backhaul infrastructure is
down.
[0091] In the example network 200, the same Fixed AP can
simultaneously provide access to multiple Fixed APs, Mobile APs
(e.g., vehicle OBUs, etc.), devices, user devices, sensors, things,
etc. For example, a plurality of mobile hotspot access networks
(e.g., MAP-based networks, etc.) may utilize the same Fixed AP.
Also for example, the same Fixed AP can provide a plurality of
simultaneous accesses to another single unit (e.g., another Fixed
AP, Mobile AP, device, etc.), for example utilizing different
channels, different radios, etc.). Note that a plurality of Fixed
APs may be utilized for fault-tolerance/fail-recovery purposes.
[0092] Referring back to FIG. 1, the example Fixed Hotspot Access
Network is shown with a wireless communication link to a backbone
provider (e.g., to one or more Backbone Providers and/or Local
Infrastructure Providers), to a Mobile Hotspot Access Network, to
one or more End User Devices, and to the Environment. Also, the
example Fixed Hotspot Access Network is shown with a wired
communication link to one or more Backbone Providers, to the Mobile
Hotspot Access Network, to one or more End User Devices, and to the
Environment. The Environment may comprise any of a variety of
devices (e.g., in-vehicle networks, devices, and sensors;
autonomous vehicle networks, devices, and sensors; maritime (or
watercraft) and port networks, devices, and sensors; general
controlled-space networks, devices, and sensors; residential
networks, devices, and sensors; disaster recovery & emergency
networks, devices, and sensors; military and aircraft networks,
devices, and sensors; smart city networks, devices, and sensors;
event (or venue) networks, devices, and sensors; underwater and
underground networks, devices, and sensors; agricultural networks,
devices, and sensors; tunnel (auto, subway, train, etc.) networks,
devices, and sensors; parking networks, devices, and sensors;
security and surveillance networks, devices, and sensors; shipping
equipment and container networks, devices, and sensors;
environmental control or monitoring networks, devices, and sensors;
municipal networks, devices, and sensors; waste management
networks, devices, and sensors, road maintenance networks, devices,
and sensors, traffic management networks, devices, and sensors;
advertising networks, devices and sensors; etc.).
[0093] The example network 100 of FIG. 1 also comprises a Mobile
Hotspot Access Network. Various example characteristics of such a
Mobile Hotspot Access Network 300 are shown at FIG. 3. Note that
various fixed network components (e.g., Fixed APs) are also
illustrated. The example network 300 may, for example, share any or
all characteristics with the other example methods, systems,
networks and/or network components 100, 200, 400, 500, and 600,
discussed herein.
[0094] The example network 300 comprises a wide variety of Mobile
APs (or hotspots) that provide access to user devices, provide for
sensor data collection, provide multi-hop connectivity to other
Mobile APs, etc. For example, the example network 300 comprises
vehicles from different fleets (e.g., aerial, terrestrial,
underground, (under)water, etc.). For example, the example network
300 comprises one or more mass distribution/transportation fleets,
one or more mass passenger transportation fleets, private/public
shared-user fleets, private vehicles, urban and municipal fleets,
maintenance fleets, drones, watercraft (e.g., boats, ships,
speedboats, tugboats, barges, etc.), emergency fleets (e.g.,
police, ambulance, firefighter, etc.), etc.
[0095] The example network 300, for example, shows vehicles from
different fleets directly connected and/or mesh connected, for
example using same or different communication technologies. The
example network 300 also shows fleets simultaneously connected to
different Fixed APs, which may or may not belong to different
respective local infrastructure providers. As a fault-tolerance
mechanism, the example network 300 may for example comprise the
utilization of long-range wireless communication network (e.g.,
cellular, 3G, 4G, LTE, etc.) in vehicles if the local network
infrastructure is down or otherwise unavailable. A same vehicle
(e.g., Mobile AP or OBU thereof) can simultaneously provide access
to multiple vehicles, devices, things, etc., for example using a
same communication technology (e.g., shared channels and/or
different respective channels thereof) and/or using a different
respective communication technology for each, Also for example, a
same vehicle can provide multiple accesses to another vehicle,
device, thing, etc., for example using a same communication
technology (e.g., shared channels and/or different respective
channels thereof, and/or using a different communication
technology).
[0096] Additionally, multiple network elements may be connected
together to provide for fault-tolerance or fail recovery, increased
throughput, or to achieve any or a variety of a client's networking
needs, many of examples of which are provided herein. For example,
two Mobile APs (or OBUs) may be installed in a same vehicle,
etc.
[0097] Referring back to FIG. 1, the example Mobile Hotspot. Access
Network is shown with a wireless communication link to a backbone
provider (e.g., to one or more Backbone Providers and/or Local
Infrastructure Providers), to a Fixed Hotspot Access Network, to
one or more End User Devices, and to the Environment (e.g., to any
one of more of the sensors or systems discussed herein, any other
device or machine, etc.). Though the Mobile Hotspot Access Network
is not shown having a wired link to the various other components,
there may (at least at times) be such a wired link, at least
temporarily.
[0098] The example network 100 of FIG. 1 also comprises a set of
End-User Devices. Various example end user devices are shown at
FIG. 4. Note that various other network components (e.g., Fixed
Hotspot Access Networks, Mobile Hotspot Access Network(s), the
Backbone/Core, etc.) are also illustrated. The example network 400
may, for example, share any or all characteristics with the other
example methods, systems, networks and/or network components 100,
200, 300, 500, and 600, discussed herein.
[0099] The example network 400 shows various mobile networked
devices. Such network devices may comprise end-user devices (e.g.,
smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, laptop computers, webcams,
personal gaming devices, personal navigation devices, personal
media devices, personal cameras, health-monitoring devices,
personal location devices, monitoring panels, printers, etc.). Such
networked devices may also comprise any of a variety of devices
operating in the general environment, where such devices might not
for example be associated with a particular user (e.g. any or all
of the sensor devices discussed herein, vehicle sensors, municipal
sensors, fleet sensors road sensors, environmental sensors,
security sensors, traffic sensors, waste sensors, meteorological
sensors, any of a variety of different types of municipal or
enterprise equipment, etc.). Any of such networked devices can be
flexibly connected to distinct backbone, fixed hotspot access
networks, mobile hotspot access networks, etc., using the same or
different wired/wireless technologies.
[0100] A mobile device may, for example, operate as an AP to
provide simultaneous access to multiple devices/things, which may
then form ad hoc networks. Devices (e.g., any or all of the devices
or network nodes discussed herein) may, for example, have redundant
technologies to access distinct backbone, fixed hotspot, and/or
mobile hotspot access networks, for example for fault-tolerance
and/or load-balancing purposes utilizing multiple SIM cards, etc.).
A device may also, for example, simultaneously access distinct
backbone, fixed hotspot access networks, and/or mobile hotspot
access networks, belonging to the same provider or to different
respective providers. Additionally for example, a device can
provide multiple accesses to another device/thing (e.g., via
different channels, radios, etc.).
[0101] Referring back to FIG. 1, the example End-User Devices are
shown with a wireless communication link to a backbone provider
(e.g., to one or more Backbone Providers and/or Local
Infrastructure Providers), to a Fixed hotspot Access Network, to a
Mobile Hotspot Access Network, and to the Environment. Also for
example, the example End-User Devices are shown with a wired
communication link to a backbone provider, to a Fixed Hotspot
Access Network, to a Mobile Hotspot Access Network, and to the
Environment.
[0102] People have always communicated with one another, beginning
with physical and oral communication, and progressing to forms of
written communication conveyed using physical and wired or wireless
electronic means. As human desires for mobility have grown, various
vehicles have been developed, and electronic forms of communication
have allowed individuals to maintain contact with one another while
traveling using those vehicles. Support for various electronic
forms of communication has become an integral part of the vehicles
in use, to enable vehicle operation and communication by vehicle
occupants. The various electronic forms of communication are now
integrated into the infrastructure of our vehicles, and the
advantages of electronically interconnecting systems and occupants
of neighboring vehicles using forms of wireless communication are
increasingly being realized, enabling safety and comfort
improvements for their users.
[0103] The Connected Vehicle (CV) concept leverages the ability of
vehicles to electronically communicate with one another, and with
networks such as the Internet. CV technologies enable vehicle
systems to provide useful context-aware information to a vehicle
and to the vehicle operator (e.g., driver) or occupants, allowing
the operator to make more informed, safer, energy-efficient, and
better decisions. CV technologies also enable the vehicles to
communicate terabytes of data between the physical world and
Cloud-based systems. Such data may then feed the operational flows
of, for example, transportation agencies, municipalities, and/or
vehicle fleet owners, allowing such entities to enhance the
knowledge they have about the environment and conditions in which
their vehicles operate, and to benefit from having historical data
and actionable insights to better plan, allocate, and manage their
operations and logistics, making them smarter, safer,
cost-effective, and productive.
[0104] However, a CV cannot make any choices for the operator, and
cannot navigate and control the vehicle independently. Such actions
are only possible in vehicles referred to herein as Autonomous
Vehicles (AVs), which are computer-navigated vehicles that include
autonomous functionalities including, by way of example and not
limitation, the ability to self-park the vehicle, the ability to
control and navigate the vehicle (e.g., start, stop, steer, etc.),
and automatic collision avoidance features. At first glance, AVs do
not need CV technologies to operate, since such vehicles are able
to independently navigate the road network. Nevertheless, CV
technologies enable the communication of real-time information
about, for example, vehicle traffic, environmental conditions,
unexpected events, and all kinds of context information that
characterizes the roads on which the AVs are travelling. With such
information, AVs are equipped to make optimized decisions
in-advance of encountering situations such as, for example,
congested travel routes, accidents or other obstacles along the
road, etc. Also, CV technologies enable AVs to maintain updated
software/firmware and any data sets relied upon by the AV (e.g.,
road maps).
[0105] The self-driving capability of AVs may facilitate and foster
the use of shared vehicles, enabling rental services of public
vehicles (e.g., fleets of taxis or buses) to substitute for
personal vehicle ownership. Shared AVs may work better in dense
urban areas, but there may also be residential/household AVs
serving multiple clients in the same geographic region. The
full-potential of the shared AV concept may, for example, result
from combining the power of allowing the same vehicle to be used by
multiple individuals (referred to herein as "vehicle sharing") that
may result in reduced parking costs, and from optimizing each
vehicle trip to serve the purposes of multiple passengers (referred
to herein as "ride sharing") that may reduce road congestion. The
use of shared AVs may increase the capacity utilization rate of
vehicles and may result in additional vehicle travel, which may
include vehicle travel involved in the return to the origin of a
trip, particularly in situations involving low-density suburban and
rural areas.
[0106] Despite all the aforementioned benefits, the use of shared
AVs without personal ownership is likely to involve more frequent
cleaning and repairs, and may have more sophisticated construction
and electronic surveillance requirements to minimize vandalism
risks. These aspects may reduce the comfort and privacy of
passengers. Moreover, many private individuals that drive very
frequently may continue to prefer to have their own vehicles, in
order to show their own personal style, guide tourists, assist
passengers to safely reach their destinations, carry their own
luggage, etc.
[0107] In a future of autonomous and shared vehicles, the potential
for much higher vehicle utilization may be seen as an opportunity
for electric vehicles (EVs) to take the market by storm, which will
increase the use of renewable and clean energy sources and reduce
air pollution and CO.sub.2 emissions. Massive market penetration of
EVs may be made possible with the deployment of a scalable and
connected infrastructure to, for example, enable the monitoring of
charging status of EV batteries, allow vehicle manufacturers to
remotely monitor the deployment. of new battery technologies,
support automated reservation and billing at charging stations, and
permit remote control of charging schedules. Based on those
connectivity and technological needs, and looking to the demands of
AVs, one may conclude that a connected vehicle infrastructure that
enables the shared AV concept is the strongest and ideal candidate
to also empower the EV concept.
[0108] When one considers that the fleets of public vehicles we
have today may operate as Fleets of Autonomous Vehicles that are
Electric and Shared (FAVES), we may then consider the potential
impact such FAVES may have on, for example, the planning, design,
and user behavior of cities and roads; user urban travel and
mobility; the transformation of people's lives; employment; and
automotive industry planning and production.
[0109] The concept of FAVES, in accordance with the various aspects
disclosed herein, offer a number of benefits. Such benefits
include, for example, smart transportation that coordinates
operations and rides to reduce the number of vehicles and avoid
congestion on the roads and competition for parking spaces,
providing for high-quality and highly efficient transportation and
improved user mobility. The use of FAVES according to the present
disclosure enables improvements in city infrastructure planning,
since cities may change the way the city provides access, enabling
the re-design, elimination, and/or reduction in the capacity of
garages, parking lots, and roads. The use of FAVES as described
herein allows an improved urban quality of life, where cities may
be differentiated in terms of the mobility services they support,
making the urban living more attractive. Such FAVES provide
increased mobility and may provide access to mobility services in
empty backhauls, and in rural, less-developed areas. The use of
such FAVES allows users to experience enjoyable and convenient
travel, where vehicle occupants are able to rest and/or work while
traveling, increasing their productivity and reducing their stress
levels, and where non-drivers have more convenient and affordable
travel options that avoid the costs associated with travel that
involves paid drivers (e.g., conventional taxis and buses). FAVES
as described herein provide for safer travel, because such FAVES
may decrease common vehicular travel risks, thereby avoiding the
costs of vehicle accidents and reducing insurance premiums. In
addition, the availability of FAVES enables individuals to realize
personal vehicle maintenance savings through the use of vehicle
rental services as a substitute for personal vehicle ownership,
which can eliminate maintenance of personal vehicles and can result
in various end-user savings. The use of FAVES in accordance with
the present disclosure may cause a shift in vehicle manufacture, as
manufacturers move their focus from the building of traditional
vehicles to the activities of selling travel time well spent, by
making modular, upgradable, and re-usable vehicles.
[0110] The increased deployment of AVs (e.g., and likewise, FAVES)
may come with a number of potential costs and/or risks, which are
addressed by various aspects of the present disclosure. For
example, the use of AVs may result in a reduction in employment of
those individuals trained for the operation, production, and
maintenance of traditional vehicles. The adoption of AVs may lead
to a reduction in the need for drivers, as well as the demand for
those individuals skilled in vehicle repair, which may be due to a
reduction in vehicle accidents enabled by aspects described herein.
Such reductions in work force may enable the displaced workers to
move to the types of work where they are needed including, for
example, the design and manufacturer of AVs. The use of AVs may
also come with additional risks such as, for example, system
failures, may be less safe under certain conditions, and may
encourage road users to take additional risks. Systems in
accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure address
the handling of such system failures and amelioration of the
potential risks. Aspects of the present disclosure help the
operator of AVs (e.g., and FAVES as well) to avoid some of the
costs of additional equipment (e.g., sensors, computers and
controls), services, and maintenance, and possibly roadway
infrastructure, that may be involved in meeting the manufacturing,
installation, repair, testing, and maintenance standards for AVs,
by minimizing the risks of system failures that could be fatal to
both vehicle occupants and other users of the roads on which the
AVs travel. Some aspects of systems according to the present
disclosure also address security/privacy risks such as, for
example, the possible use of AVs for criminal/terrorist activities
(e.g., bomb delivery) and the vulnerability of such systems to
information abuse (e.g., GPS tracking/data sharing may raise
privacy concerns).
[0111] Although the traditional vehicle concept is well and widely
understood by most of society, the special requirements and
capabilities of autonomous vehicles, especially those autonomous
vehicles that are electric and shared (i.e., the FAVES concept),
will change the automotive industry.
[0112] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure,
vehicles that are autonomous, shared, and electrically powered are
not simply a means to carry people or goods from point A to point
B, but rather become a powerful element able to perform different
context-aware and mobility actions, fueled by the interaction with
the overall automotive ecosystem. This new paradigm allows a FAVES,
as described herein, to play an important role in the quality of
life in urban areas, offering benefits to the traveler, the
environment, transit providers, manufacturers, and other
entities.
[0113] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure manages the collaborative actions and decisions taken by
the vehicles of a FAVES. Such a system supports operation of a
FAVES using a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) paradigm, offering
mobility solutions to both travelers and goods, based on travel
needs. The system supporting the application of the MaaS paradigm
to the management of a FAVES may take into consideration various
factors including, for example, the value of passenger time,
ridership habits, road occupancy, infrastructure status,
social/environmental consequences of travel, and parking
opportunities, to name just a few of those factors. A system in
accordance with the present disclosure helps end-users to avoid
traditional issues related to vehicle depreciation, financing
costs, insurance, vehicle maintenance, taxes, etc., that are part
of conventional vehicle ownership and usage.
[0114] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure improves upon components used to support a successful
MaaS strategy of the mobility market of the future. Such a system
may support a set of challenging services and strategies used when
operating a FAVES according to a MaaS paradigm, and works to, for
example, reduce city congestion, reduce vehicle emissions, decrease
costs to the end-user, improve utilization of transit providers,
and enable the collaboration of different fleets of vehicles.
Below, we provide additional details on the operation and control
of a system supporting to encourage deployment of AVs (e.g., a
FAVES) under a MaaS paradigm.
[0115] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may support combining transportation services from
different public and private transportation providers, whether
applied for movement of people and/or goods. Such a system may
provide support for new mobility and on-demand service providers
focused on ride-sharing, car-sharing, and/or bike-sharing.
[0116] A system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure may support methods of managing (e.g.,
deployment/maximization) the capacity of roads such as, for
example, managing deployment, of autonomous vehicles in what may be
referred to herein as "platooning," the use of narrower roadway
lanes, reducing vehicle stops at intersections, and the use of
improved road striping and road signage that aid recognition of the
roadway by autonomous vehicles, thus decreasing road
congestion/costs while increasing the efficiency and utilization of
transit providers that contribute to the overall transit network in
a region.
[0117] A system according to the present disclosure may support the
creation and management of AV trips, which may, for example, be
done through multiple modes. The system may provide for converging
bookings and payments that may be managed collectively, under the
same system platform, in which end-users may pay using a single
account. In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the
system may support different subscription methods such as, for
example, "pay-per-trip," and the use of a monthly fee that provides
for a certain travel distance and/or a fee structure that supports
unlimited travel by end-users. The system may provide for system
and end-user tracking of AV usage, and that includes functionality
that provides for the handling of various end-user incentives
and/or tax exemptions based on the reductions of overall emissions
resulting from the use of AVs for end-user travel. A system in
accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure may
provide operator tools that permit the definition of various
parameters relating to parking facilities such as, by way of
example and not limitation, system parameters concerning the cost
of parking and/or public transit demands, which may be used by the
system in determining actions (e.g., parking, charging, traveling)
that AVs should take when waiting without passengers. A system
according to the present disclosure may include functionality that
encourages and supports the furtherance of AV deployment such as,
for example, tools and reporting functionality that support vehicle
and system certification policies, licensing rules, and autonomous
vehicle following distance requirements.
[0118] A FAVES in a network providing MaaS will transform the
opportunities that are available to those wishing to travel, by
enabling people to have door-to-door transfer via self-navigating
vehicles to preferred destinations, at a speed of travel normally
available using private vehicle travel, and at a cost-per-mile
comparable to that of a subway ticket, or at a significantly lower
cost than current taxi and ridesharing prices.
[0119] Operating a FAVES to provide MaaS involves use of a system
that supports a service-driven and market-oriented stack that
embodies the know-how, market needs, and requirements of different
actors including, for example, end-users; institutions; vehicle and
infrastructure equipment manufacturers; legal, regulatory,
government, and safety organizations; and/or other agencies. A
system in accordance with the present disclosure enables those
actors to join forces and act together to build and manage a
scalable, high-performance, robust, and safe ecosystem in which AVs
are the central point to provide high-value services able to
optimize network capacity, reduce congestion on roads, make a
passenger's journey stress free, positively impact community and
socio-economic growth, increase safety, and improve fleet
operations. Additional details of the functionality of a system
supporting the use of a FAVES in providing MaaS are discussed
below.
[0120] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may support functionality for management of the
infrastructure with which AVs will operate or interact such as, for
example, roads, parking places/spaces, cities, etc., and may be
designed, developed, and optimized to cope with the specific
requirements of AVs. There is a strong public, business, and
government interest in, for example, reducing congestion and
pollution along roads and highways, and in decreasing the time
spent entering and leaving parking facilities. A system in
accordance with aspects of the present disclosure may support the
design and implementation of such infrastructure elements from the
beginning, including providing support for the inclusion of the
latest innovations in roadway striping, signage, and traffic
control lights/signs, thus providing support for the best physical
substrate to support AV operation.
[0121] To enable the management of installation and maintenance of
infrastructure elements that support AV operation, systems in
accordance with the present disclosure support system interfaces
for interactions involving municipal authorities, transit and
transportation providers, and/or governmental and legal agencies,
that can explore and implement policies, managed via system
parameters, that will further AV deployment, such as certification
policies, licensing rules, and following distance standards.
[0122] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may provide support for private sector companies such
as, for example, Tesla, Google, Uber, etc. that may control the
deployment of AVs and many of the technologies that those AVs use.
Those companies are building many of the AVs now being explored. A
system supporting a FAVES as described herein will enable such
private sector companies to respond to market forces including, for
example, being involved in the deployment and management of AV
software for FAVES. Such software may include, for example,
functionality related to automated controls (e.g., steering,
braking, signals, etc.), self-parking, auto-collision avoidance
features, self-vehicle control, etc. Such a system may provide
support for in-vehicle services that leverage on AV
functionalities.
[0123] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may provide support for traditional vehicle OEMs, as
they transition to support the MaaS paradigm. Such traditional
vehicle OEMs may continue to find ways to sell vehicles to
end-users, but may also turn the concept of "building traditional
vehicles to sell directly to the end-user" into selling vehicles to
service providers, or vehicles as a service, focusing on, for
example, "Miles" or "Amount of time well spent" rather than on
"Number of vehicles sold." A system in accordance with aspects of
the present invention may provide support for the transition of
such OEMs from traditional vehicle sale to end-users, providing
support for management, maintenance, rotation, and usage tracking
of AVs of a FAVES, as the AVs pass from the OEMs, to the service
providers, and into full service with end-users.
[0124] It is expected that traditional vehicle OEMs may begin a
move into the AV market by deploying modular, upgradable, and
re-usable AV hardware to enable the provision of services on top of
them. Things such as, for example, display screens used to provide
infotainment services for the occupants; diverse types of and/or
redundant sensors (e.g., optical, infrared, radar, ultrasonic, and
laser) capable of operating in a variety of conditions (e.g., rain,
snow, unpaved roads, tunnels, etc.); high-functionality, in-vehicle
cameras and computers, as well as sophisticated vehicle and
occupant monitoring and electronic surveillance systems, to
minimize the effects of system failures and risks due to vandalism,
while increasing system physical and data security. A system
according to various aspects of the present disclosure provides
support for deployment/installation, tracking, maintenance, and
upgrade of such AV hardware.
[0125] The operation of most AV services and functionalities will
involve communication and/or operation with an environment that
surrounds each AV, and with the Internet. Thus, the software and
hardware functionality of the AV and the operation of a system in
accordance with the present disclosure may depend heavily on
leveraging secure, high-bandwidth, low-latency, reliable
communication technologies and protocols, as well as data
management services able to optimize AV operations. An example of a
suitable network capable of supporting AVs of a FAVES according to
the present disclosure may be found, for example, in U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 15/133,756, filed Apr. 20, 2016, and entitled
"Communication Network of Moving Things; U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 15/132,867, filed Apr. 19, 2016, and entitled "Integrated
Communication Network for a Network of Moving Things;" and U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 15/451,696, filed Mar. 7, 2017, and
entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Mobility in a Network of
Moving Things; the entirety of each of which is hereby incorporated
herein by reference".
[0126] In this manner, AVs of a FAVES may be equipped with the
connectivity solutions to enable them to perform functions such as,
for example, the actions of inter-AV coordination and functionality
that enables AVs of a FAVES to reach a consensus among multiple
vehicles using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications; the
acquisition, sharing, and offloading of data, events, and other
digital content locally and/or via the Internet; the use of
long-range communication systems (e.g., cellular) to gain access to
road and highway maps, AV system software upgrades, road condition
reports, and emergency messages; and the establishment of
connectivity fallback in case of any emergency, etc.
[0127] On top of the networking infrastructure that connects AVs,
described herein, there are services that a system according to the
present disclosure may provide to help ensure the most suitable
functionality, behavior, and monitoring of the AV network takes
place. A system in accordance with the present disclosure may, for
example, provide functionality that supports AV maintenance;
electronic map updates; vehicle insurance-related tracking of AV
movement and events that occur during operation of the AV; operator
and end-user interfaces; and management of one or more FAVES that
are independent, coordinated, and/or cooperative.
[0128] The services supported by a system according to aspects of
the present disclosure may be targeted for different types of
markets, and may include, for example, the testing, maintenance and
repair of AV components such as sensors and controls; services
related to ultra-precise navigation tools including, for example,
those related to one or more Global Navigation Satellite Systems
(GNS) e.g., Global Positioning System (GPS)) and 2D/3D map
information; and services related to the management, storage, and
securitization of video feeds that can be important for insurance
purposes. Additional services supported by a system according to
the present disclosure may include, for example, application
programming interfaces (APIs) that enable access to data, events,
and other digital contents having possible impact on the operations
and logistics of fleets, as well as on advertising campaigns of
different agencies and retailers; and APIs to remotely manage and
control the operations and software of AVs, which may be important
for fleet managers.
[0129] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
provide support for management of various aspects of human factors
involved in the interaction of AVs with end-users or consumers, as
well as the impact of those factors on the requirements of services
that leverage on the AV ecosystem, which may be a part of any AV
deployment. Those services may, for example, be related to
environmental or refuse management in cities, the management of
Wi-Fi offload for end-users/consumers, road pricing and fees for
vehicular travel within cities or states, and/or APIs for system
developers.
[0130] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may take into consideration the influence of human
behaviors on the delivery of services. The system may be configured
to take into account the use-cases, scenarios, and socio-economic
impact resulting from the interaction of AVs and the system
described herein with people and communities, as well as vulnerable
users. In this way, the system according to aspects of the present
disclosure may be arranged so that the overall ecosystem provided
and orchestrated around AVs may be tailored to meet the
needs/desires of different end-users and operators.
[0131] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may provide support for a set of "technology pillars"
that may be used operate and manage one or more AVs in a way that
enables the AVs to deliver valuable products or services for
multiple markets. An example set of such "technology pillars" are
related to, for example, "connected" technologies (e.g., wireless
communication network technologies for a network of moving things);
the inclusion of advanced and sophisticated hardware/software
systems that increase the security and safety of both AV occupants
and other users of the roads/highways; and functionality that is
configured to handle the huge volumes of data that come with the
operation of large numbers of AVs, consistent with enabling
existing operating models and services of Intelligent Transport
System (ITS) companies to fully benefit from such data. The example
set of "technology pillars" supported by a system according to
aspects of the present disclosure may also include functionality
that enables groups of AVs to autonomously make collaborative
decisions among the AVs of the group; and functionality that
supports using the MaaS concept to operate and manage AVs in an
integrated way. Additional details about the above-listed
"technology pillars" that may be supported by a system as described
herein, are provided below.
[0132] Wireless digital connectivity may be a part of many AV
use-cases and scenarios, and may be of significant importance to AV
passengers for use in accessing the Internet, to AV manufacturers
for performing remote diagnosis and over-the-air
software/firmware/configuration/data (e.g., map) updates, to
advertising agencies and retailers for use in updating AV media
content, to AV software companies and developers to test new
functionality of AVs, and to service providers for acquisition of
data related to their services. Various example systems and methods
that provide media information (e.g., multi-media, music,
advertising, etc.) may be found in U.S. Provisional Patent
Application Ser. No. 62/376,937, filed on Aug. 19, 2016, and
entitled "Systems and Methods to Improve Multimedia Content
Distribution in a Network of Moving Things;" U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 15/414,978, filed on Jan. 25, 2017, and
entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Digital Advertising
Campaigns in a Network of Moving Things;" and U.S. Provisional
Patent Application Ser. No. 62/429,410, filed on Dec. 2, 2016, and
entitled "Systems and Methods for Improving Content Distribution
for Fleets of Vehicles, Including for Example Autonomous Vehicles,
By Using Smart Supply Stations;" the entire contents of each of
which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0133] Due to the different connectivity needs of the various
use-cases and scenarios in which AVs will operate, a system in
accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure may
provide smart and intelligent connectivity tools, to help operators
and end-users make sure that the type, scope, and capacity of the
wireless connectivity made available to each AV is tailored to the
context and requirements of each individual scenario, while
optimizing the functionality of the AV and the services provided by
the AV, as a whole.
[0134] A system in accordance with the present disclosure may
provide support for the configuration and management of, for
example, heterogeneous and high-capacity connectivity over
different networks; context-aware access to connectivity and
mobility; the aggregation of bandwidth through different
technologies; a gateway for Internet access, connectivity fallback,
and networking offload; the evolution of V2V, V2I, and V2X
communication architecture and equipment; and smart management of
radio frequency (RF) spectrum occupancy.
[0135] A system in accordance with the present disclosure may
provide support for deployment of AVs on a large scale and at a
fleet level, and will include functionality that AVs may need to
securely communicate and cooperate with one another to reach
agreement regarding local actions to be performed by AVs on a road
or highway. AVs may often need to make decisions carrying
significant risk that are coordinated with other AVs, without the
need to communicate with centrally located systems and networking
points that may impose additional and unacceptable delays and
overhead upon such decisions. A system in accordance with aspects
of the present disclosure enables an AV to quickly initiate secure
and trusted vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V), vehicle-to-infrastructure
(V2I), and/or vehicle to anything (V2X) communications with
neighbor AV and infrastructure elements. Such a system may, for
example, provide for deployment of context-aware protocols or
"security-as-a-service" packages based on the level of security
required for any AV application and/or service; and ensure that
security logs of AVs are stored and communicated to the system or
other elements in a delay-tolerant fashion for backup,
backtracking, and fault detection. The system may, for example,
provide support and configuration systems that enable quick and
trusted consensus among AVs; that enable secure interoperability
between AVs from different fleets; and that provide and distribute
Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting (AAA) functions.
[0136] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure will provide support for the functionality of AVs
referred to herein as Advanced Driving Assistance Systems (ADAS),
which the independent and self-driving capabilities of AVs
including, for example, recognition of roads and highways;
classification of obstacles on roads and highways; automatic
collision avoidance features; alerts regarding hazardous road
conditions; to name only a few. In order to minimize the risks of
failure of such AV systems, a system according to the present
disclosure leverages the connectivity among AVs, thus enabling AVs
to immediately share knowledge with one another and with the Cloud,
thus increasing the overall safety of autonomous driving and
navigation on the roads and highways.
[0137] To support the use and management of ADAS in AVs, a system
as described herein may provide functionality that enables,
configures, and/or manages collective learning (or nearby
teaching), by sharing/forwarding local information in context
(e.g., broadcasting of warnings/announcements/streamed
information); and that identifies priorities and/or forms clusters
among AVs at intersections, in case of accidents, when required to
follow a particular AV or form a line of AVs (e.g., "platooning"),
and when emergency vehicles or a platoon of vehicles are on the
road, etc. A system as described herein may provide functionality
that ensures that critical driving applications such as, by way of
example and not limitation, "see-through," "blind spot" monitoring,
lane/trajectory change assistance, the following of specific
vehicles, a requirement to maintain a minimum inter-vehicle
distance, overtaking maneuvers, collision warnings, etc., are
provided with or gather look-ahead and predictive context
information.
[0138] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may provide functionality that supports instances where
an emergency or catastrophe response is needed. Such a system may
provide functionality and/or information that enables each AV to,
for example, detect when an emergency vehicle is approaching the AV
(e.g., via mesh networking); trigger/disseminate an emergency mode
activation across the network connecting one or more AVs; allow AVs
to detect that an emergency mode has been/should be activated;
provide appropriate configuration and/or information for each AV to
act as a mobile gateway to the Internet; allow real-time,
data-driven dispatching of emergency vehicles/first responders;
define how the AV infrastructure is to behave/operate in case of an
emergency; and to permit others (e.g., a system operator, law
enforcement, vehicle manufacturer) to remotely control AVs in case
of emergency (fallback).
[0139] AVs are not expected to be able to function without having
access to data, and will benefit from a data-driven communication
infrastructure. Such data will be provided across the population of
AVs, and will be tailored to the context or service in question.
AVs will benefit from actionable data that is available on-time and
at a per-vehicle level, with a resolution, granularity, and/or
frequency that is tailored to the context or service in question,
and that enable the AV to use such data to provide added-value to
different applications. A system in accordance with various aspects
of the present disclosure will provide dynamic, personalized, and
flexible data management mechanisms that may, for example,
aggregate contextualized data from multiple sources and sensors,
where such data is tailored for different types of services and
applications; enable the collection and fusion of different types
of data, while enabling customized data filtering, at a vehicle or
Cloud level; and provide APIs to enable customized configuration of
data sensing mechanisms (e.g., sampling rates, resolution,
frequency). Such a system may provide functionality and controls,
for example, to enable data distribution for environmental
awareness (e.g., context-aware look-ahead), including the
deployment of the policies/thresholds that define whether or not to
use the data; and deploy mechanisms for data prioritization (e.g.,
real-time (RT) or delay-tolerant network (DTN) and in what order),
as well as policies for data ordering, caching, and/or dropping.
The system may also provide the functionality and controls, for
example, to perform accounting of the levels of data usage (e.g.,
based on Bitcoin or credits to use; to allow different
stakeholders, parties, fleets, and/or AVs to subscribe to different
types, levels, and amount of data through well-defined APIs; and to
integrate data from different stakeholders, parties, fleets, and/or
AVs through APIs, while fostering data sharing through specific
incentives/policies.
[0140] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure provides functionality for collecting and analyzing data
to produce analytics that may be used for the operation, control,
and management of AVs that, for example, may have self-driven and
autonomous functionalities and services. Such AVs may have
requirements and needs in terms of communication latency and
bandwidth and may, for example, have a need to frequently perform
data analytics and to quickly generate knowledge at or near the
source of the data. A system as described herein may provide
support to such AVs, which may employ local resources that might
not be continuously connected to the Internet. A system in
accordance with the present disclosure anticipates the operation,
control, and management of AVs, as such autonomous vehicles become
increasingly more intelligent than vehicles of today, in order to
allow the functionalities and services of advanced AVs to behave
and/or act as expected and in a reliable fashion. Such a system may
be configured to continue to scale and expand the functionality and
capabilities, as AVs are endowed with ever increasing
computational, storage, and processing resources that allow such
AVs to run applications that leverage on resource intensive
algorithms such as, for example, object detection and
classification, map localization, path planning, video streaming,
etc. In addition, a system as described herein supports the
operation, control, and management of AVs able to infer further
knowledge through sophisticated machine learning or artificial
intelligence techniques.
[0141] As the focus on the power of big data and analytics
increases, a system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure may be used to quantify, generate, and aggregate the
type and amount of resources, data, and knowledge involved, and may
be tailored to feed different services, locally or at the Cloud.
Such a system may, for example, provide and/or produce sufficient
data/knowledge and derive thresholds/policies to detect and enable
just-in-time optimizations of services that may be done locally
(e.g., at the edge), or adjust for their integration with fallback
to the Cloud. A system in accordance with various aspects of the
present disclosure may enable network optimizations through the use
of collaborative and continuous shared learning that may be done
locally (e.g., to relevant vehicles), or at the Cloud for general
learning. Such systems may enable, for example, the detection of
anomalies and exceptions in algorithms in use at AVs, and may, for
example, send information about them to Cloud, perform corrections
or adjustments to the algorithms, and/or send such corrections or
adjustment back to AVs. A system in accordance with the present
disclosure may log, aggregate and analyze data network
connectivity, AV mobility, and data traces of AVs, and may derive
patterns of road/highway usage, AV trips, the locations of
end-users, and various demands upon the AVs and the system. A
system as described herein may also operate to increase AV location
accuracy by, for example, correlating GNSS/GPS data of different
AVs and integrating such data into value-added maps of expected AV
routes, destinations, and origins.
[0142] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure provides the functionality that may be needed to support
various managed services and applications. Such a system may enable
different companies whose goals are to make the cities and fleets
smarter, to optimize the operation of a data-driven communication
infrastructure and the AVs that it serves by communicatively
coupling the AVs to one another and to the Cloud, while making it
possible for MaaS providers to get the connectivity and data that
they need. In this way, a system as described herein makes it
possible for operators of FAVES to, for example, better define AV
trips, optimize the operation of FAVES in real-time, enable new
forms of AV sharing to ease congestion and lower transportation
costs for riders, and provide urban, road, transportation, and
fleet planning departments with unprecedented data used to drive
their decisions regarding FAVES planning, operation, and
maintenance.
[0143] In order to help improve management of services and
applications, a system according to aspects of the present
disclosure may, for example, enable customers, clients, and/or
developers to access and deploy services in the same shared AV
infrastructure through Software Defined Networking (SDN)/Network
Function Virtualization (NFV) functions; and to deploy private,
secure, transparent, and portable APIs to access the
High-Definition (HD) data (a.k.a., data with high-granularity) and
services that may be available at a vehicle and/or Cloud level. A
system as described herein may, for example, feed various services
with data, events, video streaming and contents, detailed reports,
and analysis, and alerts of their usage, health, and diagnostics,
making providers, customers, and/or clients more aware of their
services. Such a system may enable secure, contextualized,
customized, and predictive announcements, advertisements,
broadcasting and management of relevant data, events, video
streaming and contents to feed such services. A system according to
aspects of the present disclosure may determine and prioritize the
data that will be relevant for each single service, AV, operator,
customer, and/or client based on their needs and requirements; and
may make the operation of service "over-the-air" update mechanisms
more modular, flexible, reliable, and accountable, while enabling
the deployment of management, monitoring, and configuration
functions as managed services.
[0144] AVs may perform large numbers of real-time,
resource-intensive, and critical actions while on-the-move, and
most of these actions may be decided and performed locally, without
interacting with functionality in the Cloud, because Cloud-based
systems might only be accessible through high-latency and/or
low-throughput communication links, and/or might not have all the
data available that may be used in making accurate and synchronized
decisions. A system according to the present disclosure may provide
the support needed to enable AVs endowed with such decision-making
capabilities to collaborate with one or more nearby AVs and/or with
other devices at the edge of the network, which may be locally
available. By enabling the operation of distributed, collaborative,
and coordinated decision makers, a system according to the present
disclosure may enable AVs to leverage information and computing
resources of their neighbor devices to carry out substantial
amounts of data storage, communication, configuration, measurement,
and management functions. This may occur, for example, when the AVs
do not have sufficient resources available. In some situations, an
AV may, for example, contact resources in the Cloud for increased
redundancy or fallback. In this context, a system in accordance
with aspects of the present disclosure may provide mechanisms that
enable AVs to, for example, provide open and secure APIs to allow
AVs from different fleets/owners to announce, advertise, discover
and start collaborating with each other in an ad-hoc or
peer-to-peer (P2P) fashion, in order to resolve together any
coordinated decision that affects the behavior of any
data/control/service function. Such a system may enable an AV to,
for example, detect whether any decision or management function may
be done locally or should be done at the Cloud level, by
considering the scope/locality of the function, and a required
level of redundancy/fallback. A system as described herein may
allow for different levels of interoperability that may include,
for example, operability between vehicles, operability from a
vehicle to the Cloud (e.g., map information, video streaming,
etc.), and operability from the Cloud to a vehicle (e.g., map
information, OS updates, etc.) based on, for example, the various
communication technologies available (e.g., V2V, V2I, cellular,
etc.), the origin of the data (e.g., vehicle, end-user device,
sensor, network), and/or the location of data consumers. A system
according to the present disclosure may, for example, provide
mechanisms to enable distributed negotiations and consensus in the
network of AVs, by providing a means for other devices to request
needs and to enable AV election and/or enforce AV prioritization
when required to perform any distributed action in the network.
[0145] When operating a FAVES for MaaS, multiple entities may
interact and/or collaborate in order to support service-driven
business models built on top of a shared communication and
management infrastructure that communicatively couples the AVs. The
entities may include, by way of example and not limitation, transit
and transportation stakeholders, fleet operators, governmental and
legal agencies, AV manufacturers, infrastructure owners, municipal
authorities, service providers, and insurance companies. A system
in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure may enable
various AV-based business models, including functionality related
to service pricing and taxation (e.g., data-driven assessment
value), payment and charging, incentives, exemptions, cost sharing,
travel planning/scheduling, parking space/slot management,
road/highway management, delivery management, and weight
management.
[0146] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may provide functionality that helps to make the
business models flexible, usable, and scalable, while maximizing
the likelihood of using shared AVs. Such a system may operate to,
for example, gather the RT and DTN data used to feed the MaaS
business models; provide a set of standard open APIs for data
access to aid in fostering competition; enable access to and
accounting of data related to, for example, any forms of payment
accepted for services rendered (e.g., new Bitcoin-based business
models such as, pay per data, pay per use, etc.; and provide
functionality that supports improvements to customer/client
business models by analyzing the impact of data, mobility and
connectivity patterns and trends. A system according to various
aspects of the present disclosure may provide tools to, for
example, determine the impact of the business models on the
revenue/costs for any entity sharing the AV infrastructure.
[0147] A system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure provides functionality that supports a variety of AV
tasks and/or actions including, but not limited to, traveling,
parking, and or charging. Such a system may, for example, provide
functionality used to support travel associated with the pickup,
transfer, and offload of passengers, goods, or data, in addition to
the actions of traveling to a charging station or a parking
slot/space. In addition, an AV travel action may take place to move
an AV to a location at which it is needed to perform the above
travel actions. A system as described herein may plan, schedule,
and/or coordinate such travel actions. In addition, the system may
plan, schedule, and/or coordinate a number of activities of the AV
during the act of traveling including, for example, uploading
and/or downloading data to/from the Cloud; acting as a mobile
gateway to the Internet; acquiring and sensing relevant context
information for local or general learning; detecting unexpected
events and/or behaviors; locally broadcasting, announcing,
advertising, and/or sharing media content; providing support for
local and/or global services; and providing Internet access to
occupants of the AV.
[0148] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may also support functionality related to periods of
time when the AV is parked such as, for example, planning,
scheduling, and/or coordinating the uploading and/or downloading by
the AV of data to/from the Cloud; providing a stable and reliable
gateway to the Internet for end-users in the vicinity of the AV;
and providing new or additional connectivity of a wireless access
infrastructure.
[0149] The network-based and transportation-related tasks or
actions that may be performed by AVs such as, for example,
travelling, parking, gathering data, enabling communications,
providing support for services, and providing transportation of
people and/or goods each occur within a context. A system in
accordance with the present disclosure may use information about
context as input to algorithms, functions, and/or policies that may
determine whether or not the AV is to, by way of example and not
limitation, provide wireless connectivity to vehicle occupants;
store or advertise data; travel over a particular route; remain
stopped at a certain location; proceed to a charging station or
parking place; and/or act as an urban sensor or data courier. It is
clear that the example actions listed above are not only related to
providing wireless connectivity, but that such actions also affect
the AV ecosystem. Additional details are provided below regarding
various sets of context information that may affect the AV behavior
and/or functionalities.
[0150] Various examples of the AV (or components thereof) operating
as a data collector and/or courier may, for example, be found in
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/213,269, filed Jul. 18, 2016,
and entitled "Systems and Methods for Collecting Sensor Data in a
Network of Moving Things;" U.S. patent application Ser. No.
15/228,613, filed Aug. 4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods
for Environmental Management in a Network of Moving Things;" U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 15/245,992, filed Aug. 24, 2016, and
entitled "Systems and Methods for Shipping Management in a Network
of Moving Things;" U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/337,856,
filed Oct, 28, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for
Optimizing Data Gathering in a Network of Moving Things;" U.S.
patent application Ser. No. 15/428,085, filed on Feb. 8, 2017, and
entitled "Systems and Methods for Managing Vehicle OBD Data in a
Network of Moving Things, for Example Including Autonomous Vehicle
Data;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/350,814,
filed Jun. 16, 2016, and entitled "System and Methods for Managing
Contains in a Network of Moving Things;" the entire contents of
each of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference for all
purposes.
[0151] Various example aspects of vehicle positioning or route or
travel control, vehicle tracking, vehicle monitoring, etc., may,
for example, be found in U.S. patent application Ser. No.
15/215,905, filed on Aug. 4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and
Methods for Environmental Management in a Network of Moving
Things;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/415,196,
filed Oct. 31, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Method for Achieving
Action Consensus Among a Set of Nodes in a Network of Moving
Things;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/336,891,
filed May 16, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Vehicular
Positioning Based on Message Round-Trip Times in a Network of
Moving Things;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.
62/377,350, filed Aug. 19, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods
for Flexible Software Update in a Network of Moving Things;" U.S.
Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/360,592, filed Jul. 11,
2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Vehicular Positioning
Based on Wireless Fingerprinting Data in a Network of Moving
Things;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/415,268,
filed Oct. 31, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods to Deploy
and Control a Node in a Network of Moving Things;" U.S. patent
application Ser. No. 15/351,811, filed Nov. 15, 2016, and entitled
"Systems and Methods to Extrapolate High-Value Data from a Network
of Moving Things;" and U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No.
62/417,705, filed Nov, 4, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods
for the User-Centric Calculation of the Service Quality of a
Transportation Fleet in a Network of Moving Things;" the entire
contents of each of which is hereby incorporated herein by
reference.
[0152] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
gather and/or employ a variety of characteristics or parameters for
each of a number of different types of AV contexts. For example,
such a system may include functionality that supports entry,
collection, and/or use of various characteristics or parameters of
a geographic region such as, for example, a city, county, state,
province, and/or country. In the context of a geographic region,
characteristics such as, for example, the density of available
access points (APs) may be stored and used in selecting the routes
of AVs, thus providing high-quality and low-cost connectivity for
Internet access and upload/download data to/from the Cloud. A
system as described herein may employ information about the
physical/geographic location(s) of various possible sources of
end-user demands that may be placed upon AVs of a FAVES, to
optimize the trips of AVs, and/or the number of AVs to be made
available at specific geographic locations in order to meet
end-user demand for wireless service or transportation at the
locations of groups of end-users (e.g., where crowds are located),
thus reducing the time that end-users wait for the service(s)
provided by the AVs.
[0153] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may use information about unexpected events in a
particular geographic region (e.g., a city) such as, for example,
road obstructions, vehicle and/or pedestrian accidents, and/or the
closing of roads/highways to allow the system to feed such details
to AV trip planning algorithms, as soon as possible. The population
of a particular geographic region may also be taken into account by
such a system, in that the algorithms used to schedule AVs for the
particular geographic region should take into account the density
and demographics of the potential end-users in that geographic
region, and whether the geographic region is an urban, suburban, or
rural area. For instance, the system may plan for an AV that is
leaving a city at the end of the day, to wait for more people that
will travel to the same region.
[0154] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may,
for example, include functionality that supports entry, collection,
and/or use of various characteristics or parameters of a network of
various types and sizes of roads (e.g., streets, highways,
tollways, and the like). For road pricing purposes, such a system
may take the type of road (e.g., a municipal road or highway, a
one-lane or a two-lane road, whether a toll is charged on the
road/highway, whether the road is urban or rural, etc.) into
account when planning AV routes, scheduling trips, etc. Such a
system may, for example, support the entry, collection, and/or use
of various characteristics or parameters related to road congestion
and usage. For example, if an end-user chooses to make a trip over
a congested road, the end-user may be required to pay a fee based
on the levels of congestion of the road on which they choose to
travel. A system in accordance with the present disclosure may, for
example, operate with a goal of balancing trips over the available
roads, In a similar way, a system in accordance with the present
disclosure may make it possible for end-users to pay more for
travel over a less congested road/route, if such a road/route is
available. A system described herein may use information about the
density of AVs traveling various roads, may detect that the number
of AVs traveling over a specific road is increasing, and may use
such information to predict, in advance, which roads should be used
to perform trips.
[0155] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to road conditions, Such a
system may monitor obstacles or other problems on the roads used by
AVs. The system may be able to predict such obstacles (e.g., based
on historical information on road obstructions/issues of the roads
of interest), and may advertise such information to AVs and/or
system located in the Cloud, in advance, to aid in quickly finding
alternate routes for AVs. For road pricing purposes, trips over
roads that are in poor condition or that impede travel may be
considered to be relatively more expensive, as further travel on
such roads makes those roads worse, and may cause additional wear
and tear on the AVs in use.
[0156] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to vehicle parking. Such a
system may use such information to direct AVs that are waiting for
riders to, for example, move to a traditional parking space/slot,
or to continue moving about to find additional riders. Also, the
system may use demand information in terms of end-users,
connectivity, and data to feed algorithms that decide whether AVs
will stay parked to, for example, increase coverage or act a
reliable gateway for Internet, or to travel when carrying people or
goods. Example details of various systems and methods for
performing such operation may, for example, be found in U.S.
Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62,449,394, filed Jan. 23,
2017, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Utilizing Mobile Access
Points as Fixed Access Points in a Network of Moving Things, for
Example Including Autonomous Vehicles," the entire contents of
which is hereby incorporated herein by reference for all
purposes.
[0157] When an AV has more than one parking place available near a
trip destination, characteristics or parameters related to the
cost, size, and congestion of those parking places may be evaluated
by a system of the present disclosure, to aid in the selection the
best parking place at the current time. In addition, when an AV is
nearing the destination of the current trip and parking places are
available along the trip route, a system such as that described
herein may use characteristics or parameters such as, for example,
those indicative of road congestion and parking place availability
to decide whether to park or to continue traveling, right up to the
point of arrival at the trip destination.
[0158] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to the charging of AV
batteries. For example, when the level of charge of the batteries
of an AV drops below a certain threshold, a system according to the
present disclosure may evaluate the level of charge and the
occupancy of nearby charging station(s) to aid the AV in
determining whether the AV should stay parked (e.g., acting as a
reliable gateway for the Internet) rather than continuing to travel
and thereby consume the remaining battery power, or that the AV
should share some actions (e.g., carrying end-users or goods) with
nearby AVs. Information about the limited electric budget that the
AVs may have to perform their operations may be evaluated by such a
system. In addition, a system according to the present disclosure
may evaluate characteristics and parameters representative of the
occupancy/congestion and size/charging capacity of the charging
stations currently available, in order to reduce the time that AVs
spend charging.
[0159] Although the present disclosure frequently describes AVs
that employ electricity for propulsion, some AVs may, for example,
use other sources of energy. For AV pricing purposes, a system in
accordance with aspects of the present disclosure may use
characteristics and parameters entered and/or collected by the
system to evaluate the fees charged end-users based on the source
of energy (e.g., type of fuel) used to operate the AV so that, for
example, pricing of end-user fees for use of AVs may be adjusted
according to costs of operation, operator and/or governmental
policies (e.g., higher usage fees for AVs powered by less-efficient
and non-renewable sources of energy).
[0160] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to fleets of AVs, where the
fleets may be of different types of AVs and/or have different
owners/operators. For example, there may be different types of
public or private fleets of AVs, and each of those fleets may, for
example, be operated by a different entity, may run different
services, and/or may perform heavy or light operations. A system in
accordance with the present disclosure may take into account such
information in an AV selection function as, for example, one or
more end-user preferences.
[0161] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may,
for example, enable balancing the trips requested of a fleet, or
the services running on the AVs of a fleet, among all of the AVs of
the fleet. Such a system may provide the functionality to permit
assignment of priorities to each of the applications running on an
AV, to enable management of the limited network resources and/or
data capacity of the AV.
[0162] Such a system may also provide functionality that enables
selection of an AV from a public fleet. Such functionality may be
configured to support end-user preferences such as, for example, an
end-user preference for an AV having routes that run more
frequently, in order to minimize end-user delays, or an end-user
preference for an AV that offers a larger number of infotainment
services, for end-user convenience and enjoyment.
[0163] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to features of the AV itself
For example, such a system may be configured with functionality
that enables end-users, operators, maintenance personnel, and/or
any other authorized individuals or entities to determine the
current weight and available space of an AV, to enable one to
check, for example, whether an AV has available capacity for
additional riders or additional goods. Such information about
current weight or available space for riders or goods may be
available in real-time to enable, for example, operators to be
apprised of situations in which items have been left on an AV
(e.g., bags/babies/bombs), by verifying that the weight of the AV
before the boarding of a passenger and the weight of the AV after
the passenger disembarks, is the same. In addition, a system
according to the present disclosure may use such functionality to
avoid operating AVs as "zombie cars," that is, AVs that are
traveling without passengers, goods, or a purpose for
traveling.
[0164] A system in accordance with the present disclosure may also
support the entry, collection, and/or use of characteristics and/or
parameters related to taxes and priority of operations regarding AV
activities. Such a system may provide particular functionality
supporting AV operation that, for example, is to be exempt from
taxes, and/or to give priority to AVs that are travelling due to an
emergency (e.g., ambulances, fire service workers, police cars,
etc.), those that perform special services (e.g., pharmacy AVs that
transport medicines and/or medical supplies, AVs that transport the
handicapped, etc.), or AV actions related to a response to a
catastrophe. In a similar fashion, such a system may enable the
application of particular taxes to the operation of AVs that are
considered to be highly polluting vehicles, AVs that are part of a
fleet that currently has too many vehicles on the road(s), or other
aspects of operation.
[0165] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to the occupants of the AVs.
For example, such a system may provide functionality that allows
for the configuration of the cadence, speed, and/or type of
advertisements displayed in/on the AV; the selection, operation,
and/or the adjustment of applications and services running on AVs
according to the age, mood, and/or preferences of the occupants of
AVs. In addition, such a system may enable the location and
availability of AVs to be targeted to the habits and routines of
people working or living in different regions or areas served by
the AVs. Further, a system as described herein may provide
functionality that permits end-user fees for AV travel to take into
consideration the urgency that occupants have to reach a specific
place or to move from point A to B.
[0166] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may enable the end-users to choose, book, and pay for
their AV trips through their preferred payment options or methods.
Such a system may, for example, permit end-user subscription for AV
services, using a unified end-user application, which may be
configured to operate across different geographic regions (e.g.,
villages, towns, cities, provinces, regions, states, countries,
etc.) and may support end-user access to multiple AVs and fleet
operators. Such a system may be configurable to permit end-users to
pay a designated fee for a certain number of travel credits or
travel miles, or to perform a designated or unlimited number of
trips during a particular period of time (e.g., a day, a month,
etc.), but to also be able to pay per trip taken.
[0167] A system in accordance with the present disclosure may also
provide functionality to collect and use the feedback of AV
occupants. Such a system may permit operators of the system to
review end-user AV trips and indications of the cost, duration, and
convenience of end-user trips, and may derive indicators
representative of satisfaction/reputation for each AV operator, to
enable the operators of AVs to improve their operations and
functionality.
[0168] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to the AV transportation
services for goods. Such a system may, for example, enable those
using such transportation services to designate delivery
times/intervals of goods, and the system may, when determining fees
and/or prices for such services, take such into consideration the
designated delivery times/intervals for each delivery. In addition,
such a system may enable the reservation of delivery slots that may
be taken into account in the scheduling AVs trips. The system, in
regard to scheduling of AVs trips, may also take into consideration
the total amount of goods (and in some instances, riders) to be
transported to the same location. A system in accordance with the
present disclosure may, for example, schedule a trip to move goods
to a specific location only when there is a sufficient (e.g., above
a location threshold) amount of goods destined for the same or a
nearby location.
[0169] A system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure may support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to AV trips. For example,
such a system may enable end-users to combine or give preference to
various modes of transportation (e.g., car, van, bus, train, etc.)
when planning an AV trip to travel from point A to B. The system
may permit end-users check cost and availability of the various
modes of transportation, as well as choosing modes of
transportation such as, for example, walking and cycling. Such a
system may permit the end-user to set different goals, costs,
optimizations, purposes, and/or priorities for each trip. For
example, the end-user may choose to indicate that the trip is to
move people, data, and/or luggage; to sense/acquire data; to go to
a parking place or charging station, or other trip options, The
system may permit the end-user to indicate a preference for trips
having at most a certain number of stops (e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.)
that will not affect their perceived quality of experience
(QoE).
[0170] A system in accordance with aspects of the present
disclosure may provide the functionality of a common platform for
trip planning and payment. Such a system may, for example, permit
end-users to share costs with other end-users, and permit the
system operator to define, for example, what end-users will pay for
each trip or for a set of miles per month. The system may, for
example, be configured to provide incentives to end-users to not
waste any miles/credits that may remain at the end of a month.
Further, such a system may enable AVs to trade trips and costs,
based on the amount of resources, data, end-users/occupants/riders,
actions, states, and routes that the AVs share. The system may also
permit trips by AVs to be prioritized, based on a purpose (e.g.,
transport people, transport goods, transport data, etc.) or
according to a context such as, for example, a normal/regular trip,
an urgent trip (e.g., delivering urgent personal, business, and/or
government document/data/goods), and/or an emergency trip (e.g.,
carrying police, fire service, medical personnel/medicine/medical
supplies, etc.). The system may provide incentives for end-users
and/or suppliers to pick-up/drop-off a certain number of people
and/or goods at the same origin/place/destination, at the same
time, and may, for example, derive trip fees based on the distance
travelled the end-user/goods.
[0171] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to trip fees. Such a system
may include functionality that determines trip fees based on
location or speed of AVs and the routes that the AVs travel. AV
behavior and/or actions may be taken in to account by the system,
and the system may consider the expected distance and/or time to
arrive at a certain location (e.g., charging station, parking
place) in the calculation of trip fees. A system according to the
present disclosure may, for example, use the time of day as a
factor influencing the number of AVs traveling each road, and/or
the number of AVs to be scheduled at a certain location.
[0172] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to a data network used by the
AV. Such a system may enable an operator/client to map various
services and/or applications running on AVs to the different
communication technologies (e.g., Dedicated Short Range
Communications (DSRC) (e.g., IEEE 802.11p), Wi-Fi (e.g., IEEE
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad), cellular (e.g., 4G (LIE), 5G, etc.) or
network configurations available. The system may provide
functionality that permits such mapping to take into account types
of access points (APs), support of mobility by the communication
technology, a level of security supported/provided by a
communication technology, agreements, etc.).
[0173] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
enable any kind of decision, action, or communication performed
within an AV to be evaluated based on the scope/locality of the
decision, action, or communication. For example, a system such as
described herein may, for example, enable decisions, actions,
and/or communications that involve only the AV; that affect other
AVs that are nearby an given AV; and/or that affect an entire fleet
of AVs through, for example, services of or communication via the
Cloud. Such a system may, for each kind of decision, action, and/or
communication performed within a supported AV, take into account
the level of redundancy or reliability that is required, and/or the
level of interoperability that is involved including, for example,
between vehicles (i.e., V2V); from a vehicle to the Cloud (i.e.,
V2I), e.g., mapping into or maps, video streaming, etc.; and from
the Cloud to a vehicle (i.e., 12V), e.g., maps or mapping
information, operating system (OS) updates, etc.).
[0174] A system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure may support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to various levels of network
congestion. Such congestion may, for example, be in the form of
messages or other data transported over a wireless or wired
network. Such a system may support the entry, collection, and/or
use of various characteristics or parameters related to network
congestion such as, for example, the number of AVs on roads; the
amount of data now flowing or that has been transported in the
past, to/from the Cloud; the number of
messages/sessions/communications occurring within a geographic
region or area (e.g., village, town, city, county, province, state,
etc.) or at a specific geographic location; bandwidth requests from
different AVs; and trip requests from different end-users, clients,
etc. A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may take such characteristics or parameters into account
when determining/planning/scheduling what actions an AV may perform
or which road an AV may travel.
[0175] A system according to aspects of the present disclosure may
also support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to the data being
communicated and/or transported. For example, such a system may
classify and/or prioritize the type of data to be sensed,
transmitted, dropped, and/or shared (e.g., media content, sensor
data, advertisements, notifications, end-user data, etc.) based on
the requirements or needs of the various stakeholders, fleets, AVs,
and/or parties (e.g., operators, clients, end-users).
[0176] A system according to the present disclosure may include
functionality that enables the entire AV ecosystem take into
account the origin of data being communicated and/or physically
transported, both in terms of the entity that owns or publishes
such data (e.g., a vehicle, end-user, sensor, network, etc.), the
location of consumers of such data (e.g., fleet operators,
telecommunications companies, insurance companies, vehicle
occupants/riders/end-users, etc.), and the applications and/or
services that request such data.
[0177] A system according to the present disclosure may, for
example, provide APIs to permit an end-user and/or client to
subscribe to various types of data services and/or an amount of
data transported by a subscription service; to assign credits to
end-users and/or clients to enable such to use a particular
communication service or communicate a certain amount of data
involved in performing a particular action; and/or to monitor and
track (e.g., perform accounting on) the amount of data usage of an
application, an end-user, and/or a client.
[0178] Such a system may take into account the urgency of the data,
which may be used by the system to influence decisions such as, for
example, whether a particular piece of data is to be sent in
real-time, or may be communicated using delay-tolerant networking,
and Whether such data is to be given priority over other types of
data. Such a system may enable the entry, collection, and/or use of
various policies regarding, for example, the ordering of data, the
caching/storage of data, and/or the dropping of data by AVs or
other elements. Example system and method aspects related to such
delay-tolerant networking may be found in U.S. patent application
Ser. No. 15/353,966, tiled Nov. 17, 2016, and entitled "Systems and
Methods for Delay Tolerant Networking in a Network of Moving
Things, for Example Including a Network of Autonomous Vehicles,"
the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated herein by
reference for all purposes.
[0179] A system according to various aspects of the present
disclosure may support the entry, collection, and/or use of various
characteristics or parameters related to services provided by AVs.
Such a system may include the functionality to enable AVs to give
priority to specific types of services such as, for example, those
services related to safety including, for example, police/law
enforcement, fire service, medical/ambulance services (i.e., "first
responders"). A system according to the present disclosure may take
into account the preferences and/or needs of those requesting a
specific service, or the context or environment in which that
service is to be applied. A system as described herein may, for
example, enable configuration of AVs and data network elements
appropriately for each service to be provided, taking into
consideration an amount of data used by a given service, the amount
of processing power that may be involved in running complex
functions or algorithms associated with provision of a given
service, and/or whether high-bandwidth/low-latency links are
required by a given service to be provided either in centralized or
in a distributed way, either at a vehicle (e.g., AV) or a Cloud
level.
[0180] A system in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may be configured to optimize the operation of a network
of autonomous vehicles including, for example, minimizing the
amount of time spent by an AV looking for parking places or
charging stations; minimizing the amount of time spent waiting for
a nearby parking place or a charging station; and/or minimizing the
number of AVs per road segment or overall road congestion by AVs.
Such a system may also optimize the operation of a network of AVs
by, for example, maximizing the amount of time that an AV is
travelling without being empty; and/or minimizing the amount of
time spent transferring a payload (e.g., a person, an item, and/or
data) from point A to point B. A system according to the present
disclosure may optimize operation of a network of AVs by, for
example, maximizing the amount of data offloaded by the AV, while
minimizing the amount of data offloaded at the same location or
through the same wireless access point.
[0181] Such a system may enable one or more AVs to increase
wireless connectivity coverage, and may enable configuration of a
network of AVs to minimize the data latency and increase network
data throughput, while providing connectivity to end-user devices.
A system according to the present disclosure enables an operator to
maximize the amount of data connectivity provided to the activities
in a geographic region (e.g., village, city, county, province,
state, etc.), while maximizing the safety and security of operation
of one or more AVs. Such a system enables an operator of a network
of AVs to maximize the QoE provided by an AV or a fleet of AVs, and
to distribute resource usage among all the AVs of a fleet.
[0182] There are large numbers of AV services and applications that
may involve high-bandwidth and low-latency communications. AVs may
operate in different working modes or states, and therefore may
need access to relevant context information, to enable the
operations/actions that the AVs will perform in those states. Each
AV may require different degrees or levels of wireless connectivity
in terms of, for example, the communication technologies used
(e.g., DSRC, Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.), the amount of network
bandwidth needed, and requirements regarding the amount of network
latency that the services and/or applications of the AVs are able
to tolerate. In addition to transporting people or goods, AVs may
also be used to acquire and transport data. Therefore, some trips
and wireless connectivity opportunities may need to be evaluated
while keeping in mind not only the transportation of people and/or
goods, but also service and application opportunities that are
focused on the acquisition and transportation of data.
[0183] Many of the services and applications running on an AV are
primarily interested in maximizing their communication network
throughput or minimizing their packet latency, independent of the
types of communication technologies (e.g., connectivity) or the
amount of radio frequency (RF) spectrum available to the AV. In
accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure, the
control of access to the wireless connectivity resources of an AV
may be selective and context-aware, and is not handled as a simply
first come, first served arrangement. In accordance with the
present disclosure, certain services and/or applications of an AV
may be given higher priority access to wireless connectivity
resources of the AV such as, for example, services and/or
applications that deal with issues regarding safety/emergency, or
services and/or applications that manage and/or perform updates to
the AV software and hardware. In accordance with the present
disclosure, each service or application resident on an AV may have
a different scope. For example, in a first example scenario, a
service and/or application may be performed entirely on a single
AV, while in a second example scenario, the service and/or
application may involve actions of a group of two or more AVs that
are near one another and may involve the help of a fixed access
point (AP). In a third example scenario, a service and/or
application may involve actions of a system in the Cloud. In
accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the type of
wireless connectivity (e.g., the communication technology such as
DSRC, Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.) and the allocation of connectivity
resources (e.g., the amount of bandwidth, RF spectrum) to the
service or application may be tailored according to the service or
application. In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure,
some decisions regarding connectivity may be done in-advance, to
take advantage of specific context and connectivity opportunities
available at a particular time.
[0184] Aspects of the present disclosure define an intelligent,
adaptive, and context-aware method and system for connectivity and
technology selection in the AV space, which encompasses a number of
features. For example, an AV in accordance with various aspects of
the present disclosure may classify the services/applications
running on the AV, may identify the communication requirements of
those services/applications, and may map those communication
requirements to a set of communication technologies or pieces of
available RF spectrum. AVs according to aspects of the present
disclosure may prioritize some applications over others by, for
example, giving a higher priority to serving the communication
needs of applications requiring high-capacity, high-throughput,
low-latency communication, or to those applications that are
location-aware.
[0185] An AV in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure may receive triggers from critical applications (e.g.,
applications or services related to safety such as medical/fire/law
enforcement, etc.) or network nodes that are within communication
range of the AV, and may provide limited access to connectivity to
those non-critical applications or specific network nodes. An AV
according to the present disclosure may, for example, take into
account information in what may be referred to herein as a
"profile" of the AV, An "AV profile" may, for example, characterize
actions that an AV may perform When operating in one or more
specific states (e.g., charging stage, transporting state, parking
state, etc.) based on a specific situation/category/context (e.g.,
operating as a data courier, collecting data from sensor(s),
communicating via RF wireless communication (e.g., providing Wi-Fi
IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad) connectivity for nearby network nodes
(e.g., AVs) or end-user devices), provide communication/transport
in emergency/catastrophe situations, etc.). Providing
communication, transportation, and/or data collection support in
such situations may involve assigning priorities for use of
wireless connectivity/access by different applications based on
different profiles (and those profiles may be driven and/or
triggered by different entities, e.g., self on AV, network,
factory, context, etc.). Several triggers may be defined to change
AV operation from one state to another, and thereby change the
wireless connectivity features that should be made available. An AV
in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure may
constantly monitor the quality of each service or application that
is being provided by the AV (e.g., in terms of quality of service
(QoS) or quality of end-user experience (QoE)), and may
automatically adapt the amount of bandwidth/capacity, the type(s)
of communication technologies, and/or the times slots allocated to
provide wireless connectivity used to feed each service or
application.
[0186] FIG. 5 is a block diagram that illustrates an example
architecture of a system 500 that may reside in an AV operating in
a network of moving things, in accordance with various aspects of
the present disclosure. The example system 500 may, for example,
share any or all characteristics with the other example methods,
systems, networks and/or network components 100, 200, 300, 400, and
600, discussed herein (e.g., MAPs, FAPs, etc.).
[0187] At any point in time, the example AV system 500 may support
the air interfaces of any of a number of different communication
technologies 501, using physical layer interfaces (PHY) 503 (and/or
MAC layer interfaces) that may include, for example, Direct Short
Range Communication (DSRC) (e.g., IEEE 802.11p), wireless cellular
service (e.g., Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA), Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service
(UMTS), Global System for Mobile communication (GSM), "3G," "4G,"
Long Term Evolution (LTE), "5G"), Bluetooth, Wi-Fi (IEEE
802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad), Ethernet, etc.). The available communication
technologies may be used to fulfill different communication
requirements of the services and/or application running on the AV
system 500 including, for example, throughput/bandwidth
requirements, delay/latency requirements, data security
requirements, and communication range (i.e., physical distance)
requirements. The example AV system 500 illustrated in FIG. 5
includes a number of different functional blocks including a
network access control (NAC) block 502 that comprises a physical
layer interface (PHY) block 503, a network access monitor block
504, and a routing block 505. The AV system 500 also comprises a
connection manager block 506, and a service manager block 507 that
communicates with services Service 1 511, Service 2 512, and
Service n 513. Note that a block may also be referred to herein as
a module.
[0188] The network access control (NAC) block 502 of FIG. 5
represents the functionality of the low-level, system layer that
manages and monitors communication channel access for each
communication technology. The PHY block 503 of the NAC block 502
may be responsible for translating each communication requirement
from the network access monitor 504 to features of a specific
wireless communication standard covering a certain wireless
communication technology.
[0189] The network access monitor block 504 of FIG. 5 represents
functionality that monitors and selects which configuration is to
be applied to each available communication technology. Each
communication technology may be configured in a specific way,
depending on the device in use. The network access monitor block
504 may interact directly with the PHY block 503, based on requests
issued by the connection manager block 506. A "successful"
configuration is a configuration for which the PHY block 503
returns a "success" indication, upon the configuration being
applied by the network access monitor block 506. The network access
monitor block 504 may, for example, keep track of the current
status (e.g., channel availability, channel load, signal strength,
number of end-users currently connected, etc.) of each
communication channel of each communication technology. The network
access monitor block 504 may also be responsible for notifying the
routing block 505 about new successful configurations, so that the
routing block 505 may act upon the known new configurations, and
may enable Internet Protocol (IP) routing if needed. For example,
in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, a network
access monitor (e.g., network access monitor block 504) may report
to a higher protocol layer that a new neighbor is offering Internet
access via a certain communication technology (e.g., DSRC) using a
particular "channel" (e.g., channel 180). The higher protocol layer
may, at some future time, request a connection via the Internet
access capability of the new neighbor. In such a situation, the
network access monitor may request that the PHY (e.g., PHY block
503) provide a configuration of a device to enable use of the
certain communication technology (e.g., DSRC) via the particular
channel (e.g., channel 180). If a device capable of employing the
certain communication technology (e.g., DSRC) is able to be
configured to operate on the particular channel (e.g., channel
180), the PHY (e.g., PHY block 503) may then return an indication
of "success" to the network access monitor (e.g., network access
monitor 504), which then reports to the higher protocol layer that
the request was applied successfully.
[0190] In accordance with various aspects of the present invention,
the connection manager block 506 may act on requests from the
service manager block 507, and may make use of communication
technology availability and current status information reported by
network access monitor block 504. The connection manager block 506
may signal back to the service manager block 507, the establishment
of a requested connection to a specific service. The connection
manager block 506 may handle the networking part of the system
configuration for a specific wireless connection, allowing the
system to use a certain communication technology/communication
channel. The connection manager block 506 may also provide a way
for the service manager block 507 to request of the connection
manager block 506 that, for example, a certain fixed access point
(FAP) be "blacklisted," or that availability of a specific
communication technology be ignored, even if the network access
monitor block 504 has reported that specific communication
technology as available (e.g., valid).
[0191] The service manager block 507 of FIG. 5 may, for example,
react to the registration of a new service profile 508, 509, 510 of
a corresponding Service 1 511, Service 2 512, or Service n 513, by
translating the new service profile 508, 509, 510 into the form of
a request to the connection manager block 506, Such a request for a
Service 511, 512, 513 may, for example, identify a specific
communication technology that is to be used with the requested
service including, for example, the use of DSRC emergency messages
using WAVE Short Message Protocol (WSMP) std 1609.3), and/or
specific communication channel configuration characteristics. In
addition, a new service may specify the configuration for a
specific communication technology. Such configuration
parameters/information/characteristics may include, by way of
example and not limitation (in the case of DSRC), an operating
channel (e.g., channel 180), a maximum transmission power (e.g., 23
dBm), a data rate (e.g., a relative data rate of 9 Mbps).
Additional examples of configuration
parameters/information/characteristics for DSRC may be found in,
for example, IEEE std 1609.4. Configuration
parameters/information/characteristics for other communication
technologies such as, for example, (e.g., IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/af)
may also include a specification of radio frequency channel, as
well of security methods (e.g., WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc.) There are
many ways for specifying the type of communication connection a
specific service (511, 512, 513) needs.
[0192] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure,
various types of communication connections may include, for
example, a delay tolerant connection where, for example, the
service 511, 512, 513 wanting to use the network is able to wait
until a suitable communication is available (e.g., when a stable
connection is available, or when network congestion is at a
minimum) at some point in the future. This may be possible because
the data to be transferred has already been generated and stored at
the AV, and may be transferred later when availability of a
suitable communication connection with acceptable communication
conditions has been verified and signaled by the connection manager
block 506. Example systems and method aspects for delay tolerant
network may, for example, be found in U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 15/353,966, filed Nov. 17, 2016, and entitled "Systems and
Methods for Delay Tolerant Networking in a Network of Moving
Things, for Example Including a Network of Autonomous Vehicles,"
the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated herein by
reference.
[0193] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the
various types of communication connections may also include, for
example, a connection that provides immediate access. This may be
employed where, for example, a specific service (e.g., Service 1
511, Service 2 512, Service n 513) wants a communication connection
to a destination, no matter what type of communication technology
will be used by the connection manager. This may also be referred
to herein as a "don't care" connection, in that the nature of the
data to be communicated is such that the service requesting the
communication connection doesn't care about the characteristics
(e.g., cost, capacity) of the connection. For example, a service
that monitors the Cloud for new configuration updates or software
updates might not be concerned about the type of communication
technology used for performing such a monitoring action. Such a
monitoring action by an AV might not be delay tolerant, in that the
service may require an immediate answer.
[0194] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the
various types of communication connections may include, for
example, a need for "strict immediate access" in which the Service
1 511, Service 2 512, and/or Service n 513 that requests that the
communication connect satisfy a number of strict demands regarding
a communication connection. Some examples of such demands may
include, by way of example and not limitation, the use of a
specific communication technology, or a communication technology
that. meets some or all of the requirements discussed herein. Such
demands may then be passed to the connection manager block 506
that, among other responsibilities, may identify an available
communication connection that fulfills all of the requirements of
the requesting service. One example of a service that may have a
need for "strict immediate access" may be an "emergency" service
that requires a stable communication connection, with low
latency/delay, but does not require a communication path having
high throughput/bandwidth. Another example of a service that may
have a need for "strict immediate access" is a service that has
need for access to the Internet, having a goal of a certain limit
(i.e., depending on the profile for the service) for a maximum
delay/latency and a reasonable throughput, so that end-users have a
good QoE.
[0195] There are other additional types of demands that a service
may pass to the service manager block 507 within the profile for
the service (e.g., service profiles 508, 509, 510) including, for
example, service priority, communication protocol type (e.g., WSMP,
IP, all), security (e.g., none, Wireless Equivalent Privacy (WEP),
Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2, IPsec, etc.), target identifier
(e.g., media access control (MAC) address), location related inputs
(e.g., a specific range of distance, a geo-fence that defines
regions in which to allow or disallow wireless communication,
etc.), wireless communication technology (e.g., one or more of, or
all of DSRC, wireless cellular service (e.g., CDMA, TDMA, UMTS,
GSM, "3G," "4G," LTE, "5G"), Bluetooth, and/or Wi-Fi (IEEE
802.1.1a/b/g/n/ac/ad), and/or response time (e.g., an amount of
time to be permitted with a connection (e.g., a request expiry
time)).
[0196] A service manager of each AV, such as the service manager
block 507 of FIG. 5, may share the global context of an AV at a
particular point in time. An AV global context may include what may
be referred to herein as an AV context mode and an AV context
state. An AV context mode may include, for example, transportation
mode (e.g., when the AV is transporting people and/or goods),
charging mode (e.g., when the AV is stopped and is in the process
of charging the batteries of the AV), parked mode (e.g., when the
AV is stationary in a parking location, waiting on a new job or
activity), moving mode (e.g., the AV just finished its most recent
job/ activity and does not yet have a new job/activity, so the AV
will seek a parking location and/or the AV is approaching the
starting point for new job/activity (e.g., picking up something
and/or someone)), and offline/idle mode (e.g., not in any other
mode). An AV context state may include, for example, a context
state in which the AV acts as an Internet service provider (i.e.,
"Internet"), a context state in which the AV performs sensor data
acquisition (i.e., "data sensing"), a context state in which the AV
acts as a "middle node" (e.g., extending connectivity to others by
routing data), and a context state in which the AV is handling an
emergency (i.e., "emergency").
[0197] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, a
service manager of each AV system, such as the example service
manager block 507 of FIG. 5, may use information shared by each
neighbor node to decide how to take advantage of each one of them
at a certain moment in time. The context monitor block 521 of FIG.
5 is a sub-block of the service manager block 507, and may, in
accordance with some aspects of the disclosure, handle some or all
of the AV context input coming from the network and from a feedback
service 518 of FIG. 5, thus allowing the AV to then control its
context mode and context state, as discussed herein. The following
is an example of how an AV in accordance with the present
disclosure may handle the information coming from local neighbors
(e.g., neighbor AVs, neighbor nodes in general, etc.).
[0198] In such a scenario, a first service manager (e.g., service
manager block 507) of a first AV may be requested to provide
Internet access, and may receive information from a context monitor
of two neighbor AVs, where the first neighbor AV is parked as a
"middle node," and the second neighbor AV is transporting people
while providing Internet access. The context monitor (e.g., context
monitor block 521) of the first neighbor AV may act by signaling to
the first AV that the service manager (e.g., service manager 507)
should ask the connection manager (e.g., connection manager block
506) of the first AV to select the first neighbor AV as its next
hop, since the first neighbor AV has a greater probability of
getting a good backhaul connection to the Internet. Besides local
information, the feedback service (e.g., feedback service block
518) may, for example, also receive a request from the
operator/owner of the first. AV and the first and second neighbor
AVs (e.g., a fleet owner), requesting that the first AV change its
context mode to "charging mode." Upon reception of such request,
the feedback service (e.g., feedback service block 518) of the
first AV may notify the context monitor (e.g., context monitor
block 521) of the first AV, acting accordingly.
[0199] As discussed herein, the term "service" may be used to refer
to an entity that is willing to use the AV system in order to send
data throughout the network that connects AVs. In accordance with
various aspects of the present disclosure, each service (e.g.,
Service 1 511, Service 2 512, Service n 513 of FIG. 5) may have a
corresponding service profile (e.g., profiles 508, 509, 510,
respectively) that may comprise a number of metadata items/elements
that identify/describe the service. One or more example metadata
items/elements have already been discussed herein, for example, the
"service type." The profile for a service may also, for example,
include a metadata item/element that identifies the "protocol type"
to be used during communication, Which may limit the communication
technology or the number of communication channels available. WSMP
and IP are examples of protocols that have restrictions for some
standards. For example, WSMP may only be transmitted in its pure
form via a DSRC wireless link. Therefore, a service attempting to
send a WSMP message when no DSRC link is available may find that
the WSMP message is dropped or is encapsulated in IP frames. In the
case of such encapsulation, the connection manager (e.g.,
connection manager block 506) may be forced to establish a tunnel
for WSMP-IP transfer between the current network node (e.g., AV)
and the target network node. In such a situation, the identity of
the target node may also be one metadata item/element in the
service profile, so the service manager may pass that information
to the connection manager as part of the request. IP frames may be
transmitted via DSRC with some restrictions, which may vary
depending on the regulations of each country. For example, all
current standards for DSRC (e.g., 5.9 GHz--IEEE-802.11, IEEE std
1609.x, and the European Telecommunication Standards Institute
(ETSI)) prohibit the use of IP frames on the control channel. So,
for a system where DSRC is only available on the control channel,
it may be necessary to send IP frames over other technologies, such
as cellular, being that DSRC is not available.
[0200] Another example metadata item/element that may be required
to be present. in the service profile is "service priority." A
service manager may use the service priority to set/adjust the
bandwidth available for a specific service, depending on the
implementation. For example, a high-priority service may get full
channel bandwidth, while a lower priority service may share channel
bandwidth with another lower priority service. Additional
information about what is referred to as "alternate channel access"
may be found in, for example, IEEE std 1609.4. As discussed herein,
an "emergency" service may be handled with the highest priority
compared, for example, to a "data logging" service. For a service
having a service priority of "emergency", the service manager may
make sure that no other service is going to interfere with it,
being that the "emergency" service has the highest priority. For
example, any service using the system for low latency communication
may be shut off so that the emergency service may use the system at
its full performance. Even though service priority may be processed
as a strong input to the service manager, a service with a
relatively lower service priority may ultimately be prioritized
higher than a service having a relatively higher service priority,
for example if the service manager (e.g., service manager block
507) concludes there are currently no conditions that enable the
relatively higher priority service to run. For example, a service
that offers Wi-Fi, in-vehicle access to an Internet connection may
be idle, if no end-users are currently detected as accessing that
service. In this case, the relatively higher priority service may
acquire a communication channel as soon as an end-user registers
(e.g., finishes authentication) itself on the Wi-Fi side.
[0201] The feedback block 518 of FIG. 5 represents functionality
that may be viewed as a "special" service (e.g., feedback block 518
may be considered to be "service 0") that gathers feedback 521,
522, 523 from local services 511, 512, 513, and may manage a local
data source 519 (e.g., a sensor device such as GNSS/GPS) that feeds
the service manager 507 with information that may be used for
deciding, in close proximity to the connection manager block 506,
which communication connection may be a better choice for a
specific service of the AV. The feedback block 518 may, for
example, have its own service profile, and may communicate via a
communication link 520 with the Cloud 517, to gather remotely
located historical information stored on a data base at the Cloud
517. Such information may then be fed to the service manager block
507 as input 519. An example of such a local data source being
employed with remotely accessible historical information is the use
of local GNSS/GPS information coming from a local service (e.g., a
GNSS/GPS receiver of an AV) being used together with remotely
located, historical information (e.g., at Cloud 517), from which a
probability of a successful wireless connection of a network node
(e.g., the AV) to a fixed AP (not shown) at or near a specific
geographic location/area, may be derived. Using such information,
the service manager block 507 may decide whether or not to request
the connection manager 506 to "blacklist" the fixed AP.
[0202] It should be noted that the discussion herein is provided as
an example of the use of a service profile, and is not intended to
be limiting in any way, as many other, different examples fall
within the scope of the present disclosure.
[0203] FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating how the functional
blocks of an AV system interact with one another during an example
flow of information involving an AV system 608 of an autonomous
vehicle 603, a neighbor autonomous vehicle 605, a fixed access
point 607, and a Cloud 617 accessible via the Internet 601, in
accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure. The
functional blocks of the AV system 608 of FIG. 6 may correspond to,
for example, similarly named functional blocks of the AV system 500
of FIG. 5, described in detail herein. The example system or
network 600 may, for example, share any or all characteristics with
the other example methods, systems, networks and/or network
components 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500, discussed herein.
[0204] The illustration of FIG. 6 shows a first network node, the
AV system of the AV 603, communicatively coupled via a DSRC link
604 to a second network node, the AV system of AV 605, which is
communicatively coupled via a DSRC link 606 to a third network
node, fixed AP 607. The fixed AP 607, as shown in FIG. 6, is
communicatively coupled to the Internet 601 via an Ethernet
connection 610. As also shown in FIG. 6, the AV systems of the AVs
603, 605 may detect one another as neighbors using the DSRC links
604, 606, 609. The numbers within the ten numbered circles in the
illustration of the AV system 608 of FIG. 6 represent the order of
an example sequence of actions/steps performed by the functional
blocks of the AV system 608, as described in further detail,
below.
[0205] At action/step 1, the physical layer interface (PITY) block
of the AV system 608 may provide information about any wireless
networks that the PHY has detected to the network access monitor
block, thereby making the network access monitor block aware of the
neighbor AV 605, the fixed AP 607, and the
characteristics/conditions of the corresponding wireless (e.g.,
DSRC) links 604, 609. Such characteristics/conditions may include,
for example, information about message/packet latency/delay to the
Internet through both of wireless links 604, 609,
throughput/bandwidth available via the wireless links 604, 609 to
both of the neighbor AV 605 and the fixed AP 607, and the maximum
communication range determined by the communication technology. The
PHY block may also report to the network access monitor block that
a cellular network connection 602 is available, and that, for
example, the cellular network connection 602 has a relatively
higher latency and a relative lower throughput than the DSRC
wireless links 604, 609.
[0206] Next, at action/step 2, the network access monitor block may
report to the connection manager block of the AV system 608 that
Internet access is available via DSRC wireless links 604, 609 via
two different neighbor nodes (i.e., neighbor AV 605 and fixed AP
607), and that a cellular connection is available.
[0207] Then, at action/step 3, the connection manager may signal
the service manager of the AV system 608, indicating that a
connection to the Internet is possible, both through DSRC wireless
links (e.g., wireless links 604, 609) and a cellular network (e.g.,
cellular network 604
[0208] At action/step 4, a service block that is configured and
able to provide Internet access to Wi-Fi end-users inside the AV
603 ("INTERNET") may request use of a suitable communication
connection by passing the service profile of the "INTERNET"
service, to the service manager block of the AV system 608. The
service profile of the "INTERNET" service may include, for example,
metadata items/elements representing values for the maximum
acceptable communication link latency/delay and the minimum
acceptable communication link throughput/bandwidth, and may
include, for example, metadata items/elements indicating a service
type of "strict immediate access" and a service priority of
"high."
[0209] At action/step 5 of the example, another service block
("CONFIG") may, at or about the same time as action/step 4, attempt
to communicate with a resource located in the Cloud 617, in order
to check whether a new configuration update is available for the AV
system 608. The "CONFIG" service block may send a request to the
service manager block of the AV system 608, requesting a
communication connection, and may pass the service profile of the
"CONFIG" service block to the service manager block. The service
profile sent by the "CONFIG" service block may, for example,
include metadata items/elements indicating that the service type of
the "CONFIG" service block is "don't care" immediate access, and
that the service priority is "low."
[0210] Next, at action/step 6, the feedback service block
("FEEDBACK") of the AV system 608 may receive historical data from,
for example, the Cloud 617, The received historical data may, for
example, indicate that the quality of wireless communication
between a network node (e.g., AV system 608 that resides in AV 603)
and the fixed AP 607 of FIG. 6 is typically degraded in the
specific geographic area at which the AV 603 (in which AV system
608 is installed) is currently located, In accordance with various
aspects of the present disclosure, the feedback service block of AV
608 may, for example, confirm the indications of the historical
data upon detecting loss/degradation of wireless communication with
fixed AP 607 using, for example, location information received from
a GNSS/GPS service ("GPS") block. The feedback service block may,
for example, pass such information to the service manager block of
AV system 608.
[0211] At action/step 7, the service manager block may request the
connection manager block to ignore (e.g., "blacklist") the fixed AP
607, and may establish a connection for the highest priority
service, the Internet provider service block "INTERNET", through
wireless link 604 to the network node located in neighbor AV
605.
[0212] Next, at action/step 8, the connection manager block of AV
system 608 may request the network access monitor block to perform
a channel configuration, in order to match the communication link
conditions of the AV system 608 to those of the AV system of AV
605.
[0213] At action/step 9, the network access manager block of AV
system 608 may translate the request from the connection manager
block to perform a channel configuration, into the application of
channel configurations to the DSRC communication technology, by
requesting the PHY block of the AV system 608 to establish a
wireless connection between the network node (e.g., the AV system
608) of AV 603 and the network node 605 (e.g., the AV system of the
AV 605),
[0214] At action/step 10, the network access monitor block of the
AV system 608 may request the routing block to route the data
traffic generated/coming from the "INTERNET" service block to the
Internet via the neighboring AV 605, since the neighbor AV 605
because the AV 605 has been advertising to other AVs/network nodes
that the AV 605 is providing access to the Internet. Along with a
physical channel configuration (e.g., a configuration of a
communication technology) that an AV (e.g., AV 605) is using, the
AV may report, the IP configuration that is to be used for routing
purposes over the network. Additional details may be found, for
example, in IEEE std 1609.3. Such information may either be part of
a WAVE Service Advertisement (WSA) "routing part", or another,
possibly "vendor-specific frame" that comprises IP information
needed for other network entities to connect/route their data
traffic through the neighboring AV network node that is advertising
Internet access.
[0215] In accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure, all functional blocks of the above sequence of
actions/steps may signal an acknowledgement back to the previous
block in the sequence (i.e., "up the chain"), upon success or error
in performing the indicated action/step, including signaling by the
service manager block to each affected service block. Such
signaling may be used to indicate whether the connection has or has
not been successfully established, and whether communication
according to a particular response time, has or has not been
established,
[0216] FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating an example use of an
autonomous vehicle (AV) based network for detecting anomalies and
forecasting optimizations to improve smart city infrastructure
management, in accordance with various aspects of the present
disclosure. Shown in FIG. 7 is an autonomous vehicle (AV) based
network (or portion there) 700.
[0217] The AV network 700 may comprise a Cloud 701 (e.g., similar
to the Cloud 517 of FIG. 5 and/or the Cloud 617 of FIG. 6) and a
plurality of autonomous vehicles (AVs) 702, of which three AVs,
702.sub.1, 702.sub.2, and 702.sub.3, are shown by way of example.
In this regard, each of the AVs may comprise a system substantially
similar to the AV system 500 of FIG. 5, for example, which may
generally operate in substantially the same manner as described
above with respect to FIGS. 5 and 6 for example.
[0218] The AV network 700 may be configured for detecting anomalies
and forecasting optimizations to improve smart city infrastructure
management. The characteristics and resources of AVs make them
suitable for use in supporting intelligent infrastructure
management in areas where these AVs are used. In this regard, as
noted, the main purpose of AVs is to move users and/or material in
an independent way--that is, without the user's intervention, which
would allow for a safer and more convenient/comfortable journey,
where people could spend their time in a more useful way.
Nonetheless, in addition to that transportation related use, in
instance where AVs are connected to each other and to the Internet,
they can act as part of the overall infrastructure (e.g., city
infrastructure), and as such may be configured for performing many
other actions that allow for an improvement in operation and
logistics in the infrastructure. In this regard, AVs may be
configured, for example, to act as "sensors" collecting context
information relating to their environment, to detect problems and
anomalies, to act as providers of mobile-content for passengers, be
a means of carrying massive amounts of data, contribute to
generating smart decisions based upon collected and shared
information between each other and the city, etc.
[0219] Accordingly, AVs may collaborate and continuously share
information indicative of learning, which can be performed locally
(among vehicles) and/or with centralized entities (e.g., in the
Cloud), for general overall learning, in order to guarantee a
perfect decision-synchronization (coordination and consensus) and
optimization of all the actions or the states/modes in which they
operate. In particular, connected AVs may be configured for use in
optimizing operations and logistics in their environment (e.g., in
a city) through the exchange of information between them and the
rest of the infrastructure, and/or in support of living management
in their localities (e.g., urban living quality management in
cities)
[0220] In such instances, AVs (and/or centralized entities, e.g.,
within the Cloud) may be required to perform various actions in
support of infrastructure and/or living management services in
autonomous vehicle based networks, and may perform various
functions to complete the requested services. For example, AVs may
communicate with the Cloud to learn about a city's context (e.g.,
access to maps, software upgrades, road condition reports,
emergency messages, etc.) and to learn about the AV's role and/or
type of services to provide; communicate with the other AVs and
devices of the network in order to acquire and share information
locally (e.g., information about city's environment, intents and
priorities while driving, for a perfect decision-synchronization,
etc.); may utilize self-learning and local decision-making
algorithms relating to, e.g., driving actions, stops, parking,
charging, data/information broadcast, etc.; may communicate with
the Cloud to offload city's events and anomalies and/or acquire new
information or demands; may obtain from the Cloud new updated
information (periodically or generated by current learning), with
this information being generated in the Cloud based on, e.g.,
learning and modeling of city's behavior, etc.
[0221] In various implementations in accordance with the present
disclosure, these actions may be used in conjunction with
management of infrastructure elements in AV based networks e.g.,
roads, parking places, charging stations, traffic lights, etc. In
this regard, the AVs may be considered as part of the city's
infrastructure network and as a means of transportation e.g.,
describing how physical elements of the city's infrastructure
coordinate/interact with each other in an independent/smart way in
order to guarantee the network operation.
[0222] in some example implementations, AVs (e.g., AVs
702.sub.1-701.sub.3 in FIG. 7) may have, based on their
transportation function, three main modes of operation: travelling,
parking, and charging. In these three modes, AVs may provide
several different types of services e.g., pick up and transport of
passengers, transport of goods, carry and offload data in DTN, act
as an Internet gateway to provide connectivity to users and
interact with the Cloud (e.g., the Cloud 701 in FIG. 7), act as a
behavior sensor (e.g., relating to condition in the
infrastructure), etc. For example, during their operation, AVs may
receive information from the Cloud about the locality (e.g., city)
environment, requests to perform certain actions, and/or
information relating to the required actions. The AV s may also,
directly or through the Cloud (e.g., in a DTN or RT manner),
exchange information with the other AVs or elements of the network
in order to build a city map and take decisions about their trips
and activities.
[0223] Management and/or decision making functions can be performed
locally (within the AV) and/or at the Cloud level, such as
depending on scope and criticalness of the related actions. In this
regard, AVs may be capable of collecting huge amounts of raw data,
and may be capable, in some instances, of processing the data, such
as to enable performing real-time critical actions, while
on-the-move, and without the need of contacting the Cloud.
Nonetheless, because the Cloud may function as the central
control/management entity of the network (including with respect to
management of smart city infrastructure and/or urban living), it
should be made aware, as soon as possible, of changes in city
status in order to learn and build models that allow for a better
optimization of the network, and that then should be enforced to
the AVs. Further, as AVs are capable of all these operations, they
are also endowed with the capability of detecting events outside
the normal operation flow e.g., detect and classify
anomalies/exceptions.
[0224] Use of interactions and real-time decision-making
capabilities of AVs in this context--that is, in conjunction with
management of smart city infrastructure and/or urban living--may
allow for optimization of several different operations and/or
functions, including (for example): reduction of road traffic and
congestion, travel time reduction and route optimization,
optimization of parking, reduction of infrastructure needed for
control and traffic flow, and optimization of road
infrastructure.
[0225] For example, reduction of road traffic and congestion (e.g.,
by a smart selection of less-congested routes or in a
shared-vehicle basis) may be achieved by a constant sensing of the
surrounding environment and communication and knowledge sharing
between AVs and between AVs and other external sensors/devices and
the Cloud. Travel times (e.g., time required for AV 702.sub.1 to
travel from point A to point B) and/or route optimization may be
achieved by reducing the delay in intersections, congestion and
distance required between vehicles in a road (e.g., by reducing
minimum headway, eliminating `safety` distance needed for allowing
for human reaction, etc.). Parking optimization may be achieved by
reducing space needed for parking lots and/or their utilization,
such as by reducing the time AVs spend stopped waiting for new
requests, by using AVs to serve different purposes (e.g. transport
goods while waiting for requests), by using AVs as shared vehicles,
to reduce number of vehicles needed, etc. Reduction of road
infrastructure needed for control and traffic flow, such as
intersection stops, traffic lights, lanes, alternative routes, may
be achieved by use of synchronized-decisions between vehicles that
allow for an optimized in-advance planning. Optimization of road
infrastructure may be achieved by increasing its utilization
efficiency, such by adjusting length and width of the roads, (due
to vehicles driving accuracy and precision capabilities).
[0226] Illustrated in FIG. 7 is an example sequence of actions that
may be performed in an autonomous vehicle network (e.g., AV network
700) in the course of providing and/or supporting intelligent
management of infrastructure, in accordance with the present
disclosure.
[0227] At action/step 1, the Cloud 701 provides initial information
to an AV (e.g., AV 702.sub.1 in the particular example use scenario
shown in FIG. 7) at the time it starts its operation. In this
regard, AVs may acquire (e.g., from the Cloud) a minimum amount of
initial information at the beginning of their trips, which may
allow for an initial route prediction, even though there may be
changes during the trips,
[0228] The information may include "general context" information.
For example, general context information may comprise information
relating to: location and availability of APs, as such information
parameter is decisive in route planning and/or selection in certain
situations, such as where connectivity may be a strong requirement
e.g., where passengers required access Internet; destination of the
trip; Number of AVs nearby; location of nearby AVs (if any);
destination of AVs (if any); priority list of possible types of
information to broadcast, such as in case of anomaly detection
e.g., according to anomaly's potential severity/impact in the
network, the relevance of the information may vary according to the
region in which the AV is driving and the type of service it is
providing; etc.
[0229] In addition, AVs may receive transportation-related context
information--that is, information that are specifically pertinent
to infrastructure management services. Transportation-related
context information may comprise, for example, an updated map of
the region in which the AV will be travelling and infrastructure
elements therein (e.g., roads, main stations such as parking
places, charging stations, etc.); roads report(s), particularly
relating roads in which current condition(s) may affect the driving
(e.g. many holes, obstacles, non-paved); emergency related
information, as AVs may need to be prioritized according to their
emergency rating; and/or other information, which relate to
particular conditions--e.g., current fuel/charge level, which may
be pertinent as the route may be to be adapted to the distance to
charging stations.
[0230] At action/step 2, the AV 702.sub.1 gathers information from
different sources about a city's environment. The AVs may be
configured for continuous knowledge acquisition for continuous
improvement of AV's operations. In this regard, the AVs may be
configured to continuously sense their environment, acquiring data
about the environment (e.g., at different levels of data and/or at
different acquisition rates), to serve many purposes.
[0231] The acquired information, in this manner, may comprise
information related to number and location of nearby AVs (if any),
as AVs should maintain knowledge regarding nearby AVs (if any),
such as to enable synchronizing decisions along their routes (e.g.
direction, priorities in intersection stops). The AVs may exchange
this information and be able to coordinate through direct peer
communication--that is, direct communications between the AVs--at a
rate that should be a function of the distance and current speed
(estimated time of intersection between vehicles) of each
neighbor.
[0232] The acquired information may also comprise information
related to priority of nearby AVs (if any). In this regard, an AV
may determine priority of a nearby AV as soon as it becomes its
neighbor (e.g., when that AV is detectable and reachable within a
certain range). This information may be exchanged, such as only
once, unless the AV changes its priority during its route.
[0233] The acquired information may also comprise information
related to road conditions. In this regard, the AV may learn about
current road conditions, such as by using in-vehicle cameras and
other sensors (e.g. accelerometer, etc.). Such information relating
to road conditions may then be used--e.g., as input(s) to smart
algorithms, to detect obstacles, pavement condition (e.g. wet, with
ice, holes), road dimensions (width of the lane), etc.
[0234] The acquired information may also comprise information
related to region's population. In this regard, the AV may acquire
information about or to determine (e.g., directly, such as using
in-vehicle sensors) how crowded is the region in which it is
driving, such as to enable adjustment of routes either to avoid
congestion or to drive to a place where many users' requests have
to be satisfied, to control its speed in advance and consequently
better estimate arrival times, among other purposes. The population
related information may be obtained indirectly--e.g., be inferred
from the number of requests in an area and from the location of
other vehicles, and exchanged between AVs each time a new request
appears (either for a specific AV or AV type or a general
request).
[0235] The acquired information may also comprise information
related to availability of APs. In this regard, an AV may always be
aware of how many APs are available in particular areas (e.g.,
along its route) since the kind of services the AV provides may
require a high density of APs in a region (e.g. provide high
quality connectivity for Internet access, deliver data to the
Cloud). Thus, each time an AV enters or is about to leave an AP
range, it may be notified by the AP.
[0236] The acquired information may also comprise information
related to intention of nearby AVs. In this regard, the AV may
always have knowledge about the plans regarding the route of each
AV of the fleet, such as to perfectly synchronize decisions. Thus,
each time an AV gets in a new road, it may broadcast its next plan
to all the reachable vehicles.
[0237] At action/step 3, the AV 702.sub.1 processes all the
information, takes decisions and detects anomalies. In this regard,
the AVs may process the information (the initially acquired
information and/or continuously obtained information) to facilitate
continuous knowledge reasoning for anomaly detection. Using their
data acquisition (initial and/or current), the AVs may continuously
analyze what they perceive, such as to ensure that the AVs act in
the most accurate way. The AVs may compare what they are sensing
against predictions (e.g., prediction(s) the AVs receive from the
Cloud), in order to detect anomalies/exceptions/problems in the
city. In this regard, particular predictions or statistics may be
defined, in advance, for the AVs to expect to sense in the
environment, and as such deviations from such predictions or
statistics may indicate an anomaly. These deviations may be defined
by, for example, thresholds, which may be provided by the Cloud
and/or may be determined locally, such as a result of iterative
learning performed by the AV (e.g., using historical data and
define models/ontologics).
[0238] The type of predictions, the thresholds definition and the
amount of historical data considered for anomaly detection, may
vary from one use scenario to another--that is, may depend on the
type of information the AV is dealing with. For example, for
congestion (e.g., crowded or congested areas), AVs may receive
historical data from the Cloud regarding the number of vehicles and
requests in particular area(s). Such data may regard
statistics/predictions from the past until the current moment, may
be achieved by a continuous analysis and learning at the Cloud. For
example, a particular area may be classified as too crowded or
congested if the comparison with the predictions received allows
such a conclusion or if the AV detects high deviation(s) between
what it is sensing (as described in action/step 2, above) and the
maximum historical number of vehicles and requests.
[0239] For road obstacles, the Cloud may provide historical data
about roads' conditions (e.g., the last updated information). In
addition, the AVs may be aware of and/or learn limit thresholds
(e.g., thresholds for acceleration values) that allows them to
detect changes in road condition, as well as to identify type(s) of
obstacles (e.g., by comparing the acquired acceleration data with
the learned/built thresholds model, it can classify the obstacle as
a hole or as a bump). Further, the detection and classification
process might be performed by road recognition algorithms using
images collected by cameras (e.g. in case of closed roads
detection).
[0240] For accidents, AVs may be configured to detect collisions
without any type of information from the Cloud. In this regard, AVs
may be able to build their own models, which may be based, e.g., on
sudden changes in acceleration values or image analysis provided by
cameras.
[0241] At action/step 4, the AV 702.sub.1 broadcasts detected
anomalies or exceptions, such as to nearby AVs (e.g., AVs 702.sub.2
and 702.sub.3). Some information that the AV acquires or determines
may be immediately broadcasted, such as to the other AVs of the
network, as pertinent conditions may affect normal operation of
these AVs. In this regard, irrespective of having direct
connectivity to the Cloud, an AV may broadcast locally to its
neighbors (e.g., as soon as an exception or anomaly is detected) in
order to avoid high latencies on information delivery.
[0242] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may comprise information relating to damaged AVs. For example,
once the AV detects an anomaly in its normal operation, which may
force it to, e.g., stop its trip for security reasons, it should
inform all the nearby AVs. The AVs may then, in response, respond
accordingly e.g., adapt their routes to offer help (e.g., pick up
passengers or goods), communicate the information to other AVs or
to the Cloud, etc.
[0243] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may also comprise information relating to unexpected road
conditions. In this regard, an AV may broadcast, as soon as
possible, to the other AVs whenever it finds an unexpected road
condition, such as a closed road, an accident or street works, etc.
All this information is relevant for the vehicles to plan their
trips in advance and make the right choices and synchronize their
decisions.
[0244] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may also comprise information relating to congestion (e.g.,
about areas that are too crowded). In this regard, when the AV
determines that an area is too crowded, it may broadcast locally to
warn the other AVs so traffic congestion can be avoided or more AVs
can become available to serve all the number of requests.
[0245] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may also comprise information relating to problems with
charging stations. For example, if the AV detects a problem when
arriving at a charging station, it may broadcast locally to the
nearby AVs, which may be anticipating or planning to use this
station, thus allowing these AVs to search or drive to other
stations before running out of charge.
[0246] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may also comprise information relating to emergency situations.
For example, whenever an AV is elected/enforced to perform an
emergency service the other nearby AVs may be made aware of this
situation, since AVs prioritization in roads might be changed.
[0247] Information requiring quick or prompt broadcast to nearby
AVs may also comprise information relating to parking conditions
(e.g., full parking lot). For example, Whenever an AV enters or
leaves a parking station and the number of available parking lots
or spaces is below a certain threshold, it should broadcast the
number available to the AVs nearby.
[0248] At action/step 5, the AV 702.sub.1 shares the acquired
information with the Cloud 701 for general learning of the network
(e.g., at the Cloud level). In this regard, in many instances it
may be beneficial and/or necessary to share with the Cloud
information acquired by an AV, as described above. For example,
acquired information may be shared with the Cloud when relevant to
all the vehicles in the network, and especially when the AV is
unable to establish direct connection to all other relevant AVs.
Such relevant information may comprise information relating to road
conditions (e.g., obstacles, closed roads, pavement status,
conditions and related issues that might involve updating maps and
routes, etc.), parking status (e.g., number of places available),
damage to the AV, which may affect, e.g., the number of AVs
available in the network (which has to be updated), etc.
[0249] At the Cloud, all the relevant information received from the
network is considered in order to create new models. The decision
of when to update the Cloud with new information from the AVs may
be made adaptively e.g., depending on the possible impact of this
information. In this regard, depending on the type of anomaly or
exception, the information is broadcasted to the Cloud in real-time
or in an opportunistic way. Anomalies or exceptions that may affect
the normal operation flow of the vehicles (e.g., may cause a change
in vehicle's route, may place the vehicle in an emergency
situation, etc.) may be broadcasted to the Cloud in real-time.
Similarly, anomalies/exceptions regarding crowded/congested region
and obstacles in a road may be broadcast to the Cloud in
real-time.
[0250] On the other hand, sharing and communication of information
that does not require a quick response or intervention may not be
done in real-time; rather, it may be delayed (e.g., DTN based
communication). For example, communication of information relating
to anomalies/exceptions regarding pollution and temperature levels
may be performed in a delayed manner. There are some acceptable
delays; however, the AV may estimate the time until it will be able
to send the information to the Cloud. This estimation should be
function of the location of the nearest APs, the number and
location of AVs nearby, the current speed of the AVs and the
route's conditions, such as type of roads, obstacles, traffic, etc.
If the estimated time is higher than the acceptable delay (function
of the priority set in information priority list as described
below), the AV can decide to send information in RT or send it
within a time shorter than the acceptable delay.
[0251] The AV may be configured to prioritize the information to be
shared with other AVs and the Cloud. The prioritization of
information and communication thereof may be based on, for example,
a predefined data (e.g., a priority list received from the Cloud at
the beginning of the trip, which the AV checks to match detected
anomalies/exceptions to a type of information on the list), based
on adaptive learning performed by the AV, etc. In this regard, the
AV may be configured to learn from the environment and build
models/decisions.
[0252] For example, if two anomalies are detected and matched to
the same type of information and both have a high priority, the
priority chosen by the AV may depend on a set of variables, for
example: anomalies regarding a crowded/congested region and
obstacles in a road, may both be matched to the type of information
"road condition"; and depending on the distance of the AVs nearby
and their trip plans, it may be more important to first share the
information about congestion on a certain road rather than to
broadcast an obstacle or a closed road. Also, the AV may adaptively
determine that if a detected anomaly is critical or not depending
on other factors, such as the region in question. Further, in a
DTN, if the estimated time for information to be delivered to the
Cloud is higher than the acceptable delay the AV may review its
priority list so the information is sent within a time shorter than
the acceptable delay.
[0253] At action/step 6, the Cloud 701 learns and runs/updates
smart algorithms to take decisions about the whole network. In this
regard, the Cloud may perform critical updates of its data based on
information received from the AVs. After receiving information from
the AVs, the Cloud may be able to, for example, learn about city
conditions, build models and predictions about city behavior and
use them to apply corrections on the data provided to vehicles.
However, there are some updates that might be critical and thus
urgent and others that are not so urgent.
[0254] In order to decide if an update is critical or not, the
Cloud may assess the information based on awareness of the impact
the new information may have on each vehicle and/or on the network
as a whole. In this regard, the Cloud may be configured to run
algorithms based on the type of information learned and on some
city environment variables, such as location of anomaly/exception
(e.g., the affected area), number of AVs (e.g., near the affected
area), expected route of each AV, type of services the reporting AV
is providing (transport passengers, goods or in emergency),
type/features of AVs available in the affected area, etc.
[0255] In this regard, in some instances, different combinations of
these variables may be considered based on the underlying anomalies
or exceptions. For example, in instances where the information
learned from the network regards road conditions (e.g., road
closure, obstacles on the road, etc.) or charging stations, the
Cloud may process the received information and update its data
(settings, models, etc.) based on location of anomaly/exception
(e.g., the affected area), number of AVs (e.g., near the affected
area), and expected route of each AV. When the information pertains
to a malfunction in a particular AV, the Cloud may have to also
make its critical updates based on the type of services the
reporting AV is providing, since interruption of the services being
provided by that AV and/or conditions caused by such malfunctions
(e.g., transport of passengers, emergency situation, etc.) should
be immediately addressed.
[0256] At action/step 7, the Cloud 701 broadcasts its
decisions/information/demands to the AV 702.sub.1. In this regard,
the Cloud may be configured to continuously broadcast updates,
reflecting changes resulting from critical updates as described
with respect to the previous action/step. Besides broadcasting
critical information to the fleet, the Cloud also performs periodic
updates. The type and frequency of these updates may vary, such as
based on locations, time of the day, etc. For example, whenever an
AV drives in a road where the number or location of APs
available/reachable changes, the Cloud may update the AV with the
new information about the current number and location of the APs
available. Also, whenever an AV drives in a road near a parking
place (e.g., the AV determined to be coming into proximity to a
parking lot), the Cloud may update the vehicle with information
about the estimated time the AV is required to stay in the parking
lot and the number of parking lots or spaces available.
[0257] At action/step 8, the AV 702.sub.1 continuously shares
information (e.g., broadcasting the corrections that come from the
Cloud 701) locally with the nearby AVs, AVs 702.sub.2 and
702.sub.3, and/or with the rest of its neighbors (devices of the
network; not shown). In this regard, there are many situations in
which contacting the Cloud may not be an option e.g., because of
high-latency (e.g., not having sufficient number of available APs).
Thus, AVs may be configured to acquire real-time raw data, process
it and take critical actions while on-the-move. To make this
possible and improve decision-making capability, AVs may be
configured to communicate directly with nearby AVs or other local
devices, such as to ensure exchanging critical or relevant
information. For example, the AVs may be configured to continuously
broadcast to neighboring AVs information about their routes,
intents, predictions, etc. Doing so may enable and/or enhance
decision-synchronization among all vehicles in the network and
achieve local optimizations during the AVs' journeys.
[0258] Information that may be continuously exchanged among AVs may
comprise current location, average speed, number of Nearby AVs,
location of Nearby AVs, priority level, trip plan, data that has to
be broadcasted to the Cloud when the AV does not have direct
connectivity, etc. In some instances, such exchanged information
may be used by each AV to learn and build an updated map of the
fleet as decisions are taken.
[0259] In various example use case scenarios, the above described
actions/steps (or at least some of them) may be performed, and/or
different types of information may be generated, communicated,
and/or processed in different ways.
[0260] In an example use scenario, the above described process may
be utilized in determining and handling problems in the
infrastructure. In this regard, the Cloud may (at step 1) provide
initial information to an AV at the time it starts its operation,
with the initial information comprising, e.g., road reports,
priority list of type of anomalies to broadcast, etc. The AV may
(at step 2) gather information from different sources about its
environment, comprising, e.g., information relating to a region's
population, road conditions, etc. The AV may (at step 3) process
all the information (e.g., acquired and historical data relating to
the region's population and road related data, Which may be
processed using roads recognition algorithms, etc.). Based on this
detection, the AV may determine related exceptions or anomalies
(e.g., region too crowded, obstacles or closed roads, etc.). The AV
may (at step 4) broadcast the detected anomalies to nearby AVs. The
AV may (at step 5) share the acquired information with the Cloud
for general learning of the network. The Cloud may (at step 6) use
the shared information e.g., in updating its data, in its learning
and decision-making mechanisms (e.g., models or smart algorithms
used in making and/or taking decisions about the network), etc. For
example, the Cloud may use that information in updating relating
data (e.g., models, such as population by city area, road condition
reports, etc.). The Cloud may (at step 7) make or take new
decisions or actions about the entirety of the network. For
example, the Cloud may issue new demands to the AVs (e.g., to
change their routes, in case of adverse road conditions) or request
more AVs for a specific area in case an area is too crowded because
of many unaddressed requests).
[0261] In another example use scenario, the above described process
may be utilized in adjusting AVs' routes to then reduce city or
region congestion. In this regard, the Cloud may (at step 1)
provide initial information to an AV at the time it starts its
operation, with the initial information comprising, e.g., road
maps, information relating to (e.g., identifying) the destination,
information relating to number and locations of nearby AVs,
emergency rates, user preferences (e.g., route preferences), etc.
The AV may (at step 2) gather information from different sources
about its environment, comprising, e.g., information relating to a
region's population, road conditions, number and location of AVs
nearby, priority of AVs, weather conditions, pollution levels, etc.
The AV may (at step 3) process all the information (e.g.,
crowded/congested region statistics, historical data, etc.), Based
on this detection, the AV may determine related exceptions or
anomalies (e.g., damaged AV(s), unexpected road conditions, area(s)
with adverse weather condition, too crowded area, etc.). The AV may
(at step 4) broadcast the detected anomalies to nearby AVs. The AV
may (at step 5) share the acquired information with the Cloud for
general learning of the network. The Cloud may (at step 6) use the
shared information e.g., in updating its data, in its learning and
decision-making mechanisms (e.g., models or smart algorithms used
in making and/or taking decisions about the network), etc, The
Cloud may (at step 7) make or take new decisions or actions about
the entirety of the network. For the example, the Cloud may
broadcast newly updated road condition reports and/or road maps to
all AVs in the network, periodic roads reports, notifications of
available parking lots and spaces, etc. The AV may (at step 8)
continuously share information (current location, current priority,
average speed, intention/plan, etc.) locally with the nearby AVs
and with the rest of its neighbors (devices of the network).
[0262] In another example use scenario, the above described process
may be utilized to avoid the need of traffic lights and the
expected delay at intersections. In this regard, the Cloud may (at
step 1) provide initial information to an AV at the time it starts
its operation, with the initial information comprising, e.g., road
maps, information relating to (e.g., identifying) the destination,
information relating to number, locations, and destinations of
nearby AVs, emergency rates, etc. The AV may (at step 2) gather
information from different sources about its environment,
comprising, e.g., information relating to number and location AVs
nearby, priority of AVs, etc. The AV may (at step 5) share the
acquired information with the Cloud for general learning of the
network. The Cloud may (at step 6) use the shared information e.g.,
in updating its data, in its learning and decision-making
mechanisms (e.g., models or smart algorithms used in making and/or
taking decisions about the network), etc. The Cloud may (at step 7)
make or take new decisions or actions about the entirety of the
network. For the example, the Cloud may broadcast newly updated
road maps. The AV may (at step 8) continuously share information
(current location, current priority, average speed, intention/plan,
etc.) locally with the nearby AVs and with the rest of its
neighbors (devices of the network).
[0263] In another example use scenario, the above described process
may be utilized to reduce the need for parking spaces. In this
regard, the Cloud may (at step 1) provide initial information to an
AV at the time it starts its operation, with the initial
information comprising, e.g., information relating to (e.g.,
identifying) the destination, information relating to service
(e.g., types of available services), etc. The AV may (at step 2)
gather information from different sources about its environment,
comprising, e.g., information relating to a region's population, a
number and location(s) of nearby AVs, etc. The AV may (at step 5)
share the acquired information with the Cloud for general learning
of the network. The Cloud may (at step 6) use the shared
information e.g., in updating its data, in its learning and
decision-making mechanisms (e.g., models or smart algorithms used
in making and/or taking decisions about the network), etc. The
Cloud may (at step 7) make or take new decisions or actions about
the entirety of the network. For the example, the Cloud may update
requests about the type of service to provide during an AV's trip
or near its final destination, so the AV may not need to park
(e.g., ask AVs to stop in a certain road to pick up other
passengers, ask AVs to pick up goods when it finalizes the current
service, etc.)
[0264] In another example use scenario, the above described process
may be utilized to reduce the length of roads, as they are
optimized for AV purposes. In this regard, the AV may (at step 2)
gather information from different sources about its environment,
comprising, e.g., a number and location(s) of nearby AVs and
information relating to a region's population e.g., in order to
adjust the route to avoid congestion. If there is less congestion
and thus, a smaller number of AVs per road, the width (number of
lanes) can be narrowed. In so doing, road conditions may also be
taken into account. The AV may (at step 8) continuously share
information (current location, current average speed, etc.) locally
with the nearby AVs and with the rest of its neighbors (devices of
the network). For example, the AV may share information relating to
current location, current average speed, etc., as AVs are always
keeping track of other AVs, and they can optimize the distance
between them while operating and thus allow for the reduction of
the space needed in a road.
[0265] Accordingly, in various implementations in accordance with
the present disclosure a set of defined interaction steps between
elements of a city infrastructure, in which AVs are the main focus,
may be used to optimize the operation of AVs as well as the city
infrastructure. This may comprise defining, for each of these
implementations, which elements of the city infrastructure are
involved, how elements interact, what type of data is used in each
interaction, how data is processed in each step, how decisions are
taken, and how data is used either for guaranteeing a normal
operation or detecting anomalies. Thus, the value of a fleet of
autonomous vehicles may be increased, in accordance with the
present disclosure, by offering the necessary infrastructure for
their cooperation and thus, contributing to the deployment of smart
cities or regions.
[0266] In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, once a
communication connection request for the currently highest priority
service (e.g., in this example, "INTERNET") has been completed, the
service manager block may then select a pending communication
connection request for a service having a service priority that is
the next service priority lower than that of the service for which
a communication connection was just established (i.e., the
next-highest priority service). In the current example, the
establishment of a communication connection for the configuration
update service ("CONFIG") would be the next request processed after
the request for connection of the highest priority service (i.e.,
"INTERNET"). In processing that connection request, the service
manager of an AV system (e.g., AV system 608), when performing
actions/steps 7, 8, 9, and 10 may request that lower blocks in the
chain of functional blocks (e.g., the connection manager block,
network access monitor block, routing block, and PHY block) connect
and route the data traffic coming from the configuration update
service block ("CONFIG") to a cellular network connection, and to
not disturb the established (e.g., DSRC) communication connection
of the higher priority service ("INTERNET"). Note that the example
just presented is only one example of updating, which may be
performed in any of a variety of manners. For example, additional
examples of systems and method for performing software and/or
configuration updating are provided in U.S. patent application Ser.
No. 15/157,887, filed on May 18, 2016, and entitled "Systems and
Methods for Remote Software Update and Distribution in a Network of
Moving Things;" U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/138,370, filed
on Apr. 26, 2016, and titled, "Systems and Methods for Remote
Configuration Update and Distribution in a Network of Moving
Things;" U.S. Provisional Patent Application Serial No. 62/378,269,
filed Aug, 23, 2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Flexible
Software Update in a Network of Moving Things;" and U.S.
Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/376,955, filed Aug, 19,
2016, and entitled "Systems and Methods for Reliable Software
Update in a Network of Moving Things;" the entire contents of each
of which are hereby incorporated herein by reference.
[0267] In summary, various aspects of this disclosure provide
communication network architectures, systems and methods for
supporting a network of mobile nodes, for example comprising a
combination of mobile and stationary nodes. As a non-limiting
example, various aspects of this disclosure provide communication
network architectures, systems, and methods for supporting a
dynamically configurable communication network comprising a complex
array of both static and moving communication nodes (e.g., the
Internet of moving things). While the foregoing has been described
with reference to certain aspects and examples, it will be
understood by those skilled in the art that various changes may be
made and equivalents may be substituted without departing from the
scope of the disclosure. In addition, many modifications may be
made to adapt a particular situation or material to the teachings
of the disclosure without departing from its scope. Therefore, it
is intended that the disclosure not be limited to the particular
example(s) disclosed, but that the disclosure will include all
examples falling within the scope of the appended claims.
* * * * *